Systems and methods for algorithmically arranging contests in a lobby interface

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for algorithmically arranging contests in a lobby interface are provided. A contest management system can generate, execute and maintain a plurality of contests, such as but not limited to, fantasy sports contests. Rank values can be assigned to the contests using pacing parameters of the contests and profile attributes of users who participate in the contests. The pacing parameters, such as registration ratios and registration deadlines, can indicate if a particular contest is on pace to meet a registration threshold prior to their respective registration deadline. The contest management system can dynamically update, responsive to receiving a plurality of registrations from a plurality of users, the rank value of one or more contests responsive to a change in a registration ratio of at least one contest and arrange the plurality of contests in a lobby interface based on the updated rank values.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of, and claims the benefit ofand priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/114,100, titled“SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ALGORITHMICALLY ARRANGING CONTESTS IN A LOBBYINTERFACE”, filed on Dec. 7, 2020, which itself is a continuation of,and claims the benefit of and priority to U.S. patent application Ser.No. 16/440,544, titled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ALGORITHMICALLYARRANGING CONTESTS IN A LOBBY INTERFACE”, filed on Jun. 13, 2019, nowU.S. Pat. No. 10,857,470, which claims the benefit of and priority toU.S. Provisional Application 62/684,492, filed on Jun. 13, 2018. Thecontents of each of which are incorporated herein by reference in theirentirety for all purposes.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

Content management systems allocate and use a lot of computing resourcesto transmit content to a very large number of remote computing devices.Similarly, remote computing devices also allocate and use a lot ofcomputing resources to receive and display the content received from thecontent management systems. In the case of mobile devices where memory,processing power and power are all finite resources, the receipt anddisplay of content that is not contextually relevant to a user canadversely affect the device's performance and life as well the overalluser experience. As such, content management systems should utilizeappropriate resource management policies to reduce the amount ofcontextually irrelevant content being delivered to the remote computingdevices.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present disclosure relates to one or more systems and methods foralgorithmically arranging contests in a lobby interface. A contestmanagement system can generate, execute and maintain a plurality ofcontests, such as but not limited to, fantasy sports contests. Thecontest management system can assign rank values to the contests basedin part on contest pacing parameters of the respective contests andprofile attributes of a plurality of users who participate in thecontests. Each of the contests can include contest pacing parameters,such as registration ratios and registration deadlines, that indicate ifa particular contest is on pace to meet a registration threshold priorto their respective registration deadline. For example, if a contest isunder-saturated (e.g., does not have enough registrants by theregistration deadline), the contest may be canceled or rescheduled or insome embodiments, promoted or prioritized in an effort to increase thenumber of registrants.

Thus, the contest management system as described here can use contestpacing algorithms to identify contests that may be at risk of notmeeting their respective registration threshold and also identify one ormore users that have participated in similar contests in the past to thecontests at risk of not meeting their respective registration thresholdand are more likely to participate in the identified contests. Thecontest management system can identify user vectors linking the userprofiles of these respective users and provide the contests to devicesassociated with the users, for example, as recommendations, to aid therespective contests in meeting their registration thresholds.

In a first aspect, a method for algorithmically arranging contests in alobby interface is provided. The method can include identifying, by oneor more processors, a plurality of contests to be provided in a lobbyinterface to a plurality of users. The plurality of contests can have aplurality of contest attributes. The method can include determining, bythe one or more processors, a registration ratio for each of theplurality of contests and a registration deadline for each of theplurality of contests. The method can include determining, by the one ormore processors using a contest pacing algorithm, a contest pacing scorefor each of the plurality of contests. The contest pacing score of eachcontest can be determined using the respective registration ratio andthe respective registration deadline of the contest. The method caninclude determining, by the one or more processors, using a groupingalgorithm, a plurality of groups of contests based on the contestattributes of the contests. The method can include computing, by the oneor more processors using a ranking algorithm, for each contest in afirst group of the plurality of groups, a rank value for the contestbased on the contest pacing score of the contest, a first contestattribute of the contest, and a second contest attribute of the contest.The first contest attribute can have a first weight greater than asecond weight of the second contest attribute. The ranking algorithm canuse the first weight and the second weight to compute the rank value.The method can include updating the rank value of at least the firstcontest responsive to a change in a registration ratio of the firstcontest of the plurality of contests. The method can include arranging,by the one or more processors, the plurality of contests for displaywithin a lobby interface based on the updated rank value of the at leastfirst contest.

In embodiments, the method can include determining, by the one or moreprocessors using the contest pacing algorithm, one or more contests ofthe plurality of contests have registration ratios that are less than aregistration threshold and the registration deadline of the one or morecontests is within a predetermined time period. The method can includeselecting, by the one or more processors using the contest pacingalgorithm, one or more contests of the plurality of contests andranking, by the one or more processors using the ranking algorithm, theone or more contests based on a difference between their respectiveregistration ratio and their respective registration threshold. Themethod can include generating, by the one or more processors,recommendations for the plurality of users based on the plurality ofcontests using the rank value and the difference between theirrespective registration ratio and their respective registrationthreshold. The method can include updating the rank value of at leastthe first contest based on a time difference between a current time andthe registration deadline.

In embodiments, the first contest attribute or the second contestattribute can include one or more of the following: a sport category, aprice parameter, a prize parameter, a registrant threshold, a registrantlimit, a current registrant count, a day value, a time value, a durationvalue, a contest type, and an experience level. The method can includetransmitting, by the one or more processors, to a client device of theplurality of client devices, instructions to display the lobby interfaceon the client device. The method can include updating the rank value ofat least the first contest responsive to receiving at least oneregistration for a first contest of the first group of contests from atleast one of the plurality of users. The method can include updating therank value of at least the first contest responsive to satisfying anupdate condition specified by a rank update policy.

In embodiments, the method can include monitoring, by the one or moreprocessors, for changes in the registration ratios of one or morecontests of the plurality of contests and updating the rank value of atleast one contest of the plurality of contests responsive to detecting achange in the registrations of the plurality of contests. The method caninclude generating the plurality of contests based on profile attributesassociated with the plurality of users. In embodiments, the profileattributes include one or more of the following: a history of pastcontests, a plurality of lineups, a user type, a location, an activityprofile and price parameters.

In at least one aspect, a system for generating a multidimensional datastructure using fantasy sports account activity is provided. The systemcan include one or more processors and memory. The memory can includecomputer-readable instructions stored in memory that, when executed bythe one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to identifya plurality of contests to be provided in a lobby interface to aplurality of users. The plurality of contests can have a plurality ofcontest attributes. The computer-readable instructions, when executed bythe one or more processors, can cause the one or more processors todetermine a registration ratio for each of the plurality of contests anda registration deadline for each of the plurality of contests. Thecomputer-readable instructions, when executed by the one or moreprocessors, can cause the one or more processors to determine, using acontest pacing algorithm, a contest pacing score for each of theplurality of contests. The contest pacing score of each contest can bedetermined using the respective registration ratio and the respectiveregistration deadline of the contest. The computer-readableinstructions, when executed by the one or more processors, can cause theone or more processors to determine, using a grouping algorithm, aplurality of groups of contests based on the contest attributes of thecontests. The computer-readable instructions, when executed by the oneor more processors, can cause the one or more processors to compute,using a ranking algorithm, for each contest in a first group of theplurality of groups, a rank value for the contest based on the contestpacing score of the contest, a first contest attribute of the contest,and a second contest attribute of the contest. The first contestattribute can have a first weight greater than a second weight of thesecond contest attribute. The ranking algorithm can use the first weightand the second weight to compute the rank value. The computer-readableinstructions, when executed by the one or more processors, can cause theone or more processors to update the rank value of at least the firstcontest responsive to a change in a registration ratio of the firstcontest of the plurality of contests. The computer-readableinstructions, when executed by the one or more processors, can cause theone or more processors to arrange the plurality of contests for displaywithin a lobby interface based on the updated rank value of the at leastfirst contest.

In embodiments, the computer-readable instructions, when executed by theone or more processors, can cause the one or more processors todetermine, using the contest pacing algorithm, one or more contests ofthe plurality of contests have registration ratios that are less than aregistration threshold and the registration deadline of the one or morecontests is within a predetermined time period. The computer-readableinstructions, when executed by the one or more processors, can cause theone or more processors to select, using the contest pacing algorithm,one or more contests of the plurality of contests, and rank, using theranking algorithm, the one or more contests based on a differencebetween their respective registration ratio and their respectiveregistration threshold. The computer-readable instructions, whenexecuted by the one or more processors, can cause the one or moreprocessors to generate recommendations for the plurality of users basedon the plurality of contests using the rank value and the differencebetween their respective registration ratio and their respectiveregistration threshold.

In embodiments, the computer-readable instructions, when executed by theone or more processors, can cause the one or more processors to updatethe rank value of at least the first contest based on a time differencebetween a current time and the registration deadline. Thecomputer-readable instructions, when executed by the one or moreprocessors, can cause the one or more processors to transmit, to aclient device of the plurality of client devices, instructions todisplay the lobby interface on the client device. The computer-readableinstructions, when executed by the one or more processors, can cause theone or more processors to update the rank value of at least the firstcontest responsive to receiving at least one registration for a firstcontest of the first group of contests from at least one of theplurality of users. The computer-readable instructions, when executed bythe one or more processors, can cause the one or more processors tomonitor for changes in the registration ratios of one or more contestsof the plurality of contests and update the rank value of at least onecontest of the plurality of contests responsive to detecting a change inthe registrations of the plurality of contests.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing and other objects, aspects, features, and advantages ofthe disclosure will become more apparent and better understood byreferring to the following description taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1A is a block diagram depicting an embodiment of a networkenvironment comprising client devices in communication with serverdevices via a network;

FIG. 1B is a block diagram depicting a cloud computing environmentcomprising client device in communication with cloud service providers;

FIGS. 1C and 1D are block diagrams depicting embodiments of computingdevices useful in connection with the methods and systems describedherein;

FIG. 2A depicts a contest lobby showing contests and a correspondingallocation of computer resources;

FIG. 2B depicts a contest lobby showing contests and a correspondingallocation of computer resources;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram depicting one or more embodiments of a contestranking system;

FIG. 4A is a block diagram depicting one or more embodiments of ahistorical contest database;

FIG. 4B is a block diagram depicting one or more embodiments of anactive contest database;

FIG. 5 is a flow chart depicting one or more embodiments of a processfor determining one or more contests that are similar to a targetcontest;

FIG. 6 is a flow chart depicting one or more embodiments of a processfor projecting a number of registrants for a target contest;

FIG. 7A and FIG. 7B show one or more embodiments of a projectedregistrant profile and an actual registrant profile at a time T1 and atime T2, respectively;

FIG. 8A shows a process for generating a contest at a determined time;

FIG. 8B shows an example embodiment of a process for generating acontest based on a schedule;

FIG. 9 depicts one or more embodiments of a contest managements systemhaving a plurality of user profiles;

FIG. 10 depicts one or more embodiments of a contest database fororganizing a plurality of contests and a plurality of contestattributes;

FIG. 11 depicts one or more embodiments of a block diagram of a contestmanagement system; and

FIGS. 12A-12B shows a flow diagram of a method for systems and methodsfor algorithmically arranging contests in a lobby interface.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

For purposes of reading the description of the various embodimentsbelow, the following descriptions of the sections of the specificationand their respective contents may be helpful:

Section A describes a network environment and computing environmentwhich may be useful for practicing embodiments described herein.

Section B describes embodiments of systems and methods for monitoring apace of registrations of contests for improved allocation of computerresources and for ranking contests.

Section C describes embodiments of systems and methods foralgorithmically arranging contests in a lobby interface.

A. Computing and Network Environment

Prior to discussing specific embodiments of the present solution, it maybe helpful to describe aspects of the operating environment as well asassociated system components (e.g., hardware elements) in connectionwith the methods and systems described herein. Referring to FIG. 1A, anembodiment of a network environment is depicted. In brief overview, thenetwork environment includes one or more clients 102 a-102 n (alsogenerally referred to as local machine(s) 102, client(s) 102, clientnode(s) 102, client machine(s) 102, client computer(s) 102, clientdevice(s) 102, endpoint(s) 102, or endpoint node(s) 102) incommunication with one or more servers 106 a-106 n (also generallyreferred to as server(s) 106, node 106, or remote machine(s) 106) viaone or more networks 104. In some embodiments, a client 102 has thecapacity to function as both a client node seeking access to resourcesprovided by a server and as a server providing access to hostedresources for other clients 102 a-102 n.

Although FIG. 1A shows a network 104 between the clients 102 and theservers 106, the clients 102 and the servers 106 may be on the samenetwork 104. In some embodiments, there are multiple networks 104between the clients 102 and the servers 106. In one of theseembodiments, a network 104′ (not shown) may be a private network and anetwork 104 may be a public network. In another of these embodiments, anetwork 104 may be a private network and a network 104′ a publicnetwork. In still another of these embodiments, networks 104 and 104′may both be private networks.

The network 104 may be connected via wired or wireless links. Wiredlinks may include Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), coaxial cable lines, oroptical fiber lines. The wireless links may include BLUETOOTH, Wi-Fi,Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), an infraredchannel or satellite band. The wireless links may also include anycellular network standards used to communicate among mobile devices,including standards that qualify as 1G, 2G, 3G, or 4G. The networkstandards may qualify as one or more generation of mobiletelecommunication standards by fulfilling a specification or standardssuch as the specifications maintained by International TelecommunicationUnion. The 3G standards, for example, may correspond to theInternational Mobile Telecommunications-2050 (IMT-2050) specification,and the 4G standards may correspond to the International MobileTelecommunications Advanced (IMT-Advanced) specification. Examples ofcellular network standards include AMPS, GSM, GPRS, UMTS, LTE, LTEAdvanced, Mobile WiMAX, and WiMAX-Advanced. Cellular network standardsmay use various channel access methods e.g. FDMA, TDMA, CDMA, or SDMA.In some embodiments, different types of data may be transmitted viadifferent links and standards. In other embodiments, the same types ofdata may be transmitted via different links and standards.

The network 104 may be any type and/or form of network. The geographicalscope of the network 104 may vary widely and the network 104 can be abody area network (BAN), a personal area network (PAN), a local-areanetwork (LAN), e.g. Intranet, a metropolitan area network (MAN), a widearea network (WAN), or the Internet. The topology of the network 104 maybe of any form and may include, e.g., any of the following:point-to-point, bus, star, ring, mesh, or tree. The network 104 may bean overlay network which is virtual and sits on top of one or morelayers of other networks 104′. The network 104 may be of any suchnetwork topology as known to those ordinarily skilled in the art capableof supporting the operations described herein. The network 104 mayutilize different techniques and layers or stacks of protocols,including, e.g., the Ethernet protocol, the internet protocol suite(TCP/IP), the ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) technique, the SONET(Synchronous Optical Networking) protocol, or the SDH (SynchronousDigital Hierarchy) protocol. The TCP/IP internet protocol suite mayinclude application layer, transport layer, internet layer (including,e.g., IPv6), or the link layer. The network 104 may be a type of abroadcast network, a telecommunications network, a data communicationnetwork, or a computer network.

In some embodiments, the system may include multiple, logically-groupedservers 106. In one of these embodiments, the logical group of serversmay be referred to as a server farm 38 or a machine farm 38. In anotherof these embodiments, the servers 106 may be geographically dispersed.In other embodiments, a machine farm 38 may be administered as a singleentity. In still other embodiments, the machine farm 38 includes aplurality of machine farms 38. The servers 106 within each machine farm38 can be heterogeneous—one or more of the servers 106 or machines 106can operate according to one type of operating system platform (e.g.,WINDOWS NT, manufactured by Microsoft Corp. of Redmond, Wash.), whileone or more of the other servers 106 can operate on according to anothertype of operating system platform (e.g., Unix, Linux, or Mac OS X).

In one embodiment, servers 106 in the machine farm 38 may be stored inhigh-density rack systems, along with associated storage systems, andlocated in an enterprise data center. In this embodiment, consolidatingthe servers 106 in this way may improve system manageability, datasecurity, the physical security of the system, and system performance bylocating servers 106 and high performance storage systems on localizedhigh performance networks. Centralizing the servers 106 and storagesystems and coupling them with advanced system management tools allowsmore efficient use of server resources.

The servers 106 of each machine farm 38 do not need to be physicallyproximate to another server 106 in the same machine farm 38. Thus, thegroup of servers 106 logically grouped as a machine farm 38 may beinterconnected using a wide-area network (WAN) connection or ametropolitan-area network (MAN) connection. For example, a machine farm38 may include servers 106 physically located in different continents ordifferent regions of a continent, country, state, city, campus, or room.Data transmission speeds between servers 106 in the machine farm 38 canbe increased if the servers 106 are connected using a local-area network(LAN) connection or some form of direct connection. Additionally, aheterogeneous machine farm 38 may include one or more servers 106operating according to a type of operating system, while one or moreother servers 106 execute one or more types of hypervisors rather thanoperating systems. In these embodiments, hypervisors may be used toemulate virtual hardware, partition physical hardware, virtualizephysical hardware, and execute virtual machines that provide access tocomputing environments, allowing multiple operating systems to runconcurrently on a host computer. Native hypervisors may run directly onthe host computer. Hypervisors may include VMware ESX/ESXi, manufacturedby VMWare, Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif.; the Xen hypervisor, an opensource product whose development is overseen by Citrix Systems, Inc.;the HYPER-V hypervisors provided by Microsoft or others. Hostedhypervisors may run within an operating system on a second softwarelevel. Examples of hosted hypervisors may include VMware Workstation andVIRTUALBOX.

Management of the machine farm 38 may be de-centralized. For example,one or more servers 106 may comprise components, subsystems and modulesto support one or more management services for the machine farm 38. Inone of these embodiments, one or more servers 106 provide functionalityfor management of dynamic data, including techniques for handlingfailover, data replication, and increasing the robustness of the machinefarm 38. Each server 106 may communicate with a persistent store and, insome embodiments, with a dynamic store.

Server 106 may be a file server, application server, web server, proxyserver, appliance, network appliance, gateway, gateway server,virtualization server, deployment server, SSL VPN server, or firewall.In one embodiment, the server 106 may be referred to as a remote machineor a node. In another embodiment, a plurality of nodes 290 may be in thepath between any two communicating servers.

Referring to FIG. 1B, a cloud computing environment is depicted. A cloudcomputing environment may provide client 102 with one or more resourcesprovided by a network environment. The cloud computing environment mayinclude one or more clients 102 a-102 n, in communication with the cloud108 over one or more networks 104. Clients 102 may include, e.g., thickclients, thin clients, and zero clients. A thick client may provide atleast some functionality even when disconnected from the cloud 108 orservers 106. A thin client or a zero client may depend on the connectionto the cloud 108 or server 106 to provide functionality. A zero clientmay depend on the cloud 108 or other networks 104 or servers 106 toretrieve operating system data for the client device. The cloud 108 mayinclude back end platforms, e.g., servers 106, storage, server farms ordata centers.

The cloud 108 may be public, private, or hybrid. Public clouds mayinclude public servers 106 that are maintained by third parties to theclients 102 or the owners of the clients. The servers 106 may be locatedoff-site in remote geographical locations as disclosed above orotherwise. Public clouds may be connected to the servers 106 over apublic network. Private clouds may include private servers 106 that arephysically maintained by clients 102 or owners of clients. Privateclouds may be connected to the servers 106 over a private network 104.Hybrid clouds 108 may include both the private and public networks 104and servers 106.

The cloud 108 may also include a cloud based delivery, e.g. Software asa Service (SaaS) 110, Platform as a Service (PaaS) 112, andInfrastructure as a Service (IaaS) 114. IaaS may refer to a user rentingthe use of infrastructure resources that are needed during a specifiedtime period. IaaS providers may offer storage, networking, servers orvirtualization resources from large pools, allowing the users to quicklyscale up by accessing more resources as needed. Examples of IaaS caninclude infrastructure and services (e.g., EG-32) provided by OVHHOSTING of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, AMAZON WEB SERVICES provided byAmazon.com, Inc., of Seattle, Wash., RACKSPACE CLOUD provided byRackspace US, Inc., of San Antonio, Tex., Google Compute Engine providedby Google Inc. of Mountain View, Calif., or RIGHTSCALE provided byRightScale, Inc., of Santa Barbara, Calif. PaaS providers may offerfunctionality provided by IaaS, including, e.g., storage, networking,servers or virtualization, as well as additional resources such as,e.g., the operating system, middleware, or runtime resources. Examplesof PaaS include WINDOWS AZURE provided by Microsoft Corporation ofRedmond, Wash., Google App Engine provided by Google Inc., and HEROKUprovided by Heroku, Inc. of San Francisco, Calif. SaaS providers mayoffer the resources that PaaS provides, including storage, networking,servers, virtualization, operating system, middleware, or runtimeresources. In some embodiments, SaaS providers may offer additionalresources including, e.g., data and application resources. Examples ofSaaS include GOOGLE APPS provided by Google Inc., SALESFORCE provided bySalesforce.com Inc. of San Francisco, Calif., or OFFICE 365 provided byMicrosoft Corporation. Examples of SaaS may also include data storageproviders, e.g. DROPBOX provided by Dropbox, Inc. of San Francisco,Calif., Microsoft SKYDRIVE provided by Microsoft Corporation, GoogleDrive provided by Google Inc., or Apple ICLOUD provided by Apple Inc. ofCupertino, Calif.

Clients 102 may access IaaS resources with one or more IaaS standards,including, e.g., Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Open CloudComputing Interface (OCCI), Cloud Infrastructure Management Interface(CIMI), or OpenStack standards. Some IaaS standards may allow clientsaccess to resources over HTTP, and may use Representational StateTransfer (REST) protocol or Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP).Clients 102 may access PaaS resources with different PaaS interfaces.Some PaaS interfaces use HTTP packages, standard Java APIs, JavaMailAPI, Java Data Objects (JDO), Java Persistence API (JPA), Python APIs,web integration APIs for different programming languages including,e.g., Rack for Ruby, WSGI for Python, or PSGI for Perl, or other APIsthat may be built on REST, HTTP, XML, or other protocols. Clients 102may access SaaS resources through the use of web-based user interfaces,provided by a web browser (e.g. GOOGLE CHROME, Microsoft INTERNETEXPLORER, or Mozilla Firefox provided by Mozilla Foundation of MountainView, Calif.). Clients 102 may also access SaaS resources throughsmartphone or tablet applications, including, e.g., Salesforce SalesCloud, or Google Drive app. Clients 102 may also access SaaS resourcesthrough the client operating system, including, e.g., Windows filesystem for DROPBOX.

In some embodiments, access to IaaS, PaaS, or SaaS resources may beauthenticated. For example, a server or authentication server mayauthenticate a user via security certificates, HTTPS, or API keys. APIkeys may include various encryption standards such as, e.g., AdvancedEncryption Standard (AES). Data resources may be sent over TransportLayer Security (TLS) or Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).

The client 102 and server 106 may be deployed as and/or executed on anytype and form of computing device, e.g. a computer, network device orappliance capable of communicating on any type and form of network andperforming the operations described herein. FIGS. 1C and 1D depict blockdiagrams of a computing device 100 useful for practicing an embodimentof the client 102 or a server 106. As shown in FIGS. 1C and 1D, eachcomputing device 100 includes a central processing unit 121, and a mainmemory unit 122. As shown in FIG. 1C, a computing device 100 may includea storage device 128, an installation device 116, a network interface118, an I/O controller 123, display devices 124 a-124 n, a keyboard 126and a pointing device 127, e.g. a mouse. The storage device 128 mayinclude, without limitation, an operating system, software, and asoftware of a contest management system 206. As shown in FIG. 1D, eachcomputing device 100 may also include additional optional elements, e.g.a memory port 103, a bridge 170, one or more input/output devices 130a-130 n (generally referred to using reference numeral 130), and a cachememory 140 in communication with the central processing unit 121.

The central processing unit 121 is any logic circuitry that responds toand processes instructions fetched from the main memory unit 122. Inmany embodiments, the central processing unit 121 is provided by amicroprocessor unit, e.g.: those manufactured by Intel Corporation ofMountain View, Calif.; those manufactured by Motorola Corporation ofSchaumburg, Ill.; the ARM processor and TEGRA system on a chip (SoC)manufactured by Nvidia of Santa Clara, Calif.; the POWER7 processor,those manufactured by International Business Machines of White Plains,N.Y.; or those manufactured by Advanced Micro Devices of Sunnyvale,Calif. The computing device 100 may be based on any of these processors,or any other processor capable of operating as described herein. Thecentral processing unit 121 may utilize instruction level parallelism,thread level parallelism, different levels of cache, and multi-coreprocessors. A multi-core processor may include two or more processingunits on a single computing component. Examples of multi-core processorsinclude the AMD PHENOM IIX2, INTEL CORE i5 and INTEL CORE i7.

Main memory unit 122 may include one or more memory chips capable ofstoring data and allowing any storage location to be directly accessedby the microprocessor 121. Main memory unit 122 may be volatile andfaster than storage 128 memory. Main memory units 122 may be Dynamicrandom access memory (DRAM) or any variants, including static randomaccess memory (SRAM), Burst SRAM or SynchBurst SRAM (BSRAM), Fast PageMode DRAM (FPM DRAM), Enhanced DRAM (EDRAM), Extended Data Output RAM(EDO RAM), Extended Data Output DRAM (EDO DRAM), Burst Extended DataOutput DRAM (BEDO DRAM), Single Data Rate Synchronous DRAM (SDR SDRAM),Double Data Rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM), Direct Rambus DRAM (DRDRAM), orExtreme Data Rate DRAM (XDR DRAM). In some embodiments, the main memory122 or the storage 128 may be non-volatile; e.g., non-volatile readaccess memory (NVRAM), flash memory non-volatile static RAM (nvSRAM),Ferroelectric RAM (FeRAM), Magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM), Phase-changememory (PRAM), conductive-bridging RAM (CBRAM),Silicon-Oxide-Nitride-Oxide-Silicon (SONOS), Resistive RAM (RRAM),Racetrack, Nano-RAM (NRAM), or Millipede memory. The main memory 122 maybe based on any of the above described memory chips, or any otheravailable memory chips capable of operating as described herein. In theembodiment shown in FIG. 1C, the processor 121 communicates with mainmemory 122 via a system bus 150 (described in more detail below). FIG.1D depicts an embodiment of a computing device 100 in which theprocessor communicates directly with main memory 122 via a memory port103. For example, in FIG. 1D the main memory 122 may be DRDRAM.

FIG. 1D depicts an embodiment in which the main processor 121communicates directly with cache memory 140 via a secondary bus,sometimes referred to as a backside bus. In other embodiments, the mainprocessor 121 communicates with cache memory 140 using the system bus150. Cache memory 140 typically has a faster response time than mainmemory 122 and is typically provided by SRAM, BSRAM, or EDRAM. In theembodiment shown in FIG. 1D, the processor 121 communicates with variousI/O devices 130 via a local system bus 150. Various buses may be used toconnect the central processing unit 121 to any of the I/O devices 130,including a PCI bus, a PCI-X bus, or a PCI-Express bus, or a NuBus. Forembodiments in which the I/O device is a video display 124, theprocessor 121 may use an Advanced Graphics Port (AGP) to communicatewith the display 124 or the I/O controller 123 for the display 124. FIG.1D depicts an embodiment of a computer 100 in which the main processor121 communicates directly with I/O device 130 b or other processors 121′via HYPERTRANSPORT, RAPIDIO, or INFINIBAND communications technology.FIG. 1D also depicts an embodiment in which local busses and directcommunication are mixed: the processor 121 communicates with I/O device130 a using a local interconnect bus while communicating with I/O device130 b directly.

A wide variety of I/O devices 130 a-130 n may be present in thecomputing device 100. Input devices may include keyboards, mice,trackpads, trackballs, touchpads, touch mice, multi-touch touchpads andtouch mice, microphones, multi-array microphones, drawing tablets,cameras, single-lens reflex camera (SLR), digital SLR (DSLR), CMOSsensors, accelerometers, infrared optical sensors, pressure sensors,magnetometer sensors, angular rate sensors, depth sensors, proximitysensors, ambient light sensors, gyroscopic sensors, or other sensors.Output devices may include video displays, graphical displays, speakers,headphones, inkjet printers, laser printers, and 3D printers.

Devices 130 a-130 n may include a combination of multiple input oroutput devices, including, e.g., Microsoft KINECT, Nintendo Wiimote forthe WIT, Nintendo WII U GAMEPAD, or Apple IPHONE. Some devices 130 a-130n allow gesture recognition inputs through combining some of the inputsand outputs. Some devices 130 a-130 n provides for facial recognitionwhich may be utilized as an input for different purposes includingauthentication and other commands. Some devices 130 a-130 n provides forvoice recognition and inputs, including, e.g., Microsoft KINECT, SIRIfor IPHONE by Apple, Google Now or Google Voice Search.

Additional devices 130 a-130 n have both input and output capabilities,including, e.g., haptic feedback devices, touchscreen displays, ormulti-touch displays. Touchscreen, multi-touch displays, touchpads,touch mice, or other touch sensing devices may use differenttechnologies to sense touch, including, e.g., capacitive, surfacecapacitive, projected capacitive touch (PCT), in-cell capacitive,resistive, infrared, waveguide, dispersive signal touch (DST), in-celloptical, surface acoustic wave (SAW), bending wave touch (BWT), orforce-based sensing technologies. Some multi-touch devices may allow twoor more contact points with the surface, allowing advanced functionalityincluding, e.g., pinch, spread, rotate, scroll, or other gestures. Sometouchscreen devices, including, e.g., Microsoft PIXELSENSE orMulti-Touch Collaboration Wall, may have larger surfaces, such as on atable-top or on a wall, and may also interact with other electronicdevices. Some I/O devices 130 a-130 n, display devices 124 a-124 n orgroup of devices may be augmented reality devices. The I/O devices maybe controlled by an I/O controller 123 as shown in FIG. 1C. The I/Ocontroller may control one or more I/O devices, such as, e.g., akeyboard 126 and a pointing device 127, e.g., a mouse or optical pen.Furthermore, an I/O device may also provide storage and/or aninstallation medium 116 for the computing device 100. In still otherembodiments, the computing device 100 may provide USB connections (notshown) to receive handheld USB storage devices. In further embodiments,an I/O device 130 may be a bridge between the system bus 150 and anexternal communication bus, e.g. a USB bus, a SCSI bus, a FireWire bus,an Ethernet bus, a Gigabit Ethernet bus, a Fibre Channel bus, or aThunderbolt bus.

In some embodiments, display devices 124 a-124 n may be connected to I/Ocontroller 123. Display devices may include, e.g., liquid crystaldisplays (LCD), thin film transistor LCD (TFT-LCD), blue phase LCD,electronic papers (e-ink) displays, flexile displays, light emittingdiode displays (LED), digital light processing (DLP) displays, liquidcrystal on silicon (LCOS) displays, organic light-emitting diode (OLED)displays, active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) displays,liquid crystal laser displays, time-multiplexed optical shutter (TMOS)displays, or 3D displays. Examples of 3D displays may use, e.g.stereoscopy, polarization filters, active shutters, or autostereoscopy.Display devices 124 a-124 n may also be a head-mounted display (HMD). Insome embodiments, display devices 124 a-124 n or the corresponding I/Ocontrollers 123 may be controlled through or have hardware support forOPENGL or DIRECTX API or other graphics libraries.

In some embodiments, the computing device 100 may include or connect tomultiple display devices 124 a-124 n, which each may be of the same ordifferent type and/or form. As such, any of the I/O devices 130 a-130 nand/or the I/O controller 123 may include any type and/or form ofsuitable hardware, software, or combination of hardware and software tosupport, enable or provide for the connection and use of multipledisplay devices 124 a-124 n by the computing device 100. For example,the computing device 100 may include any type and/or form of videoadapter, video card, driver, and/or library to interface, communicate,connect or otherwise use the display devices 124 a-124 n. In oneembodiment, a video adapter may include multiple connectors to interfaceto multiple display devices 124 a-124 n. In other embodiments, thecomputing device 100 may include multiple video adapters, with eachvideo adapter connected to one or more of the display devices 124 a-124n. In some embodiments, any portion of the operating system of thecomputing device 100 may be configured for using multiple displays 124a-124 n. In other embodiments, one or more of the display devices 124a-124 n may be provided by one or more other computing devices 100 a or100 b connected to the computing device 100, via the network 104. Insome embodiments software may be designed and constructed to use anothercomputer's display device as a second display device 124 a for thecomputing device 100. For example, in one embodiment, an Apple iPad mayconnect to a computing device 100 and use the display of the device 100as an additional display screen that may be used as an extended desktop.One ordinarily skilled in the art will recognize and appreciate thevarious ways and embodiments that a computing device 100 may beconfigured to have multiple display devices 124 a-124 n.

Referring again to FIG. 1C, the computing device 100 may comprise astorage device 128 (e.g. one or more hard disk drives or redundantarrays of independent disks) for storing an operating system or otherrelated software, and for storing application software programs such asany program related to the software for the contest management system206. Examples of storage device 128 include, e.g., hard disk drive(HDD); optical drive including CD drive, DVD drive, or BLU-RAY drive;solid-state drive (SSD); USB flash drive; or any other device suitablefor storing data. Some storage devices may include multiple volatile andnon-volatile memories, including, e.g., solid state hybrid drives thatcombine hard disks with solid state cache. Some storage device 128 maybe non-volatile, mutable, or read-only. Some storage device 128 may beinternal and connect to the computing device 100 via a bus 150. Somestorage devices 128 may be external and connect to the computing device100 via an I/O device 130 that provides an external bus. Some storagedevice 128 may connect to the computing device 100 via the networkinterface 118 over a network 104, including, e.g., the Remote Disk forMACBOOK AIR by Apple. Some client devices 100 may not require anon-volatile storage device 128 and may be thin clients or zero clients102. Some storage device 128 may also be used as an installation device116, and may be suitable for installing software and programs.Additionally, the operating system and the software can be run from abootable medium, for example, a bootable CD, e.g. KNOPPIX, a bootable CDfor GNU/Linux that is available as a GNU/Linux distribution fromknoppix.net.

Client device 100 may also install software or application from anapplication distribution platform. Examples of application distributionplatforms include the App Store for iOS provided by Apple, Inc., the MacApp Store provided by Apple, Inc., GOOGLE PLAY for Android OS providedby Google Inc., Chrome Webstore for CHROME OS provided by Google Inc.,and Amazon Appstore for Android OS and KINDLE FIRE provided byAmazon.com, Inc. An application distribution platform may facilitateinstallation of software on a client device 102. An applicationdistribution platform may include a repository of applications on aserver 106 or a cloud 108, which the clients 102 a-102 n may access overa network 104. An application distribution platform may includeapplication developed and provided by various developers. A user of aclient device 102 may select, purchase and/or download an applicationvia the application distribution platform.

Furthermore, the computing device 100 may include a network interface118 to interface to the network 104 through a variety of connectionsincluding, but not limited to, standard telephone lines LAN or WAN links(e.g., 802.11, T1, T3, Gigabit Ethernet, Infiniband), broadbandconnections (e.g., ISDN, Frame Relay, ATM, Gigabit Ethernet,Ethernet-over-SONET, ADSL, VDSL, BPON, GPON, fiber optical includingFiOS), wireless connections, or some combination of any or all of theabove. Connections can be established using a variety of communicationprotocols (e.g., TCP/IP, Ethernet, ARCNET, SONET, SDH, Fiber DistributedData Interface (FDDI), IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac CDMA, GSM, WiMax and directasynchronous connections). In one embodiment, the computing device 100communicates with other computing devices 100′ via any type and/or formof gateway or tunneling protocol e.g. Secure Socket Layer (SSL) orTransport Layer Security (TLS), or the Citrix Gateway Protocolmanufactured by Citrix Systems, Inc. of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. The networkinterface 118 may comprise a built-in network adapter, network interfacecard, PCMCIA network card, EXPRESSCARD network card, card bus networkadapter, wireless network adapter, USB network adapter, modem or anyother device suitable for interfacing the computing device 100 to anytype of network capable of communication and performing the operationsdescribed herein.

A computing device 100 of the sort depicted in FIGS. 1B and 1C mayoperate under the control of an operating system, which controlsscheduling of tasks and access to system resources. The computing device100 can be running any operating system such as any of the versions ofthe MICROSOFT WINDOWS operating systems, the different releases of theUnix and Linux operating systems, any version of the MAC OS forMacintosh computers, any embedded operating system, any real-timeoperating system, any open source operating system, any proprietaryoperating system, any operating systems for mobile computing devices, orany other operating system capable of running on the computing deviceand performing the operations described herein. Typical operatingsystems include, but are not limited to: WINDOWS 2050, WINDOWS Server2022, WINDOWS CE, WINDOWS Phone, WINDOWS XP, WINDOWS VISTA, and WINDOWS7, WINDOWS RT, WINDOWS 8, and WINDOWS 10, all of which are manufacturedby Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash.; MAC OS and iOS, manufacturedby Apple, Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.; and Linux, a freely-availableoperating system, e.g. Linux Mint distribution (“distro”) or Ubuntu,distributed by Canonical Ltd. of London, United Kingdom; or Unix orother Unix-like derivative operating systems; and Android, designed byGoogle, of Mountain View, Calif., among others. Some operating systems,including, e.g., the CHROME OS by Google, may be used on zero clients orthin clients, including, e.g., CHROMEBOOKS.

The computer system 100 can be any workstation, telephone, desktopcomputer, laptop or notebook computer, netbook, ULTRABOOK, tablet,server, handheld computer, mobile telephone, smartphone or otherportable telecommunications device, media playing device, a gamingsystem, mobile computing device, or any other type and/or form ofcomputing, telecommunications or media device that is capable ofcommunication. The computer system 100 has sufficient processor powerand memory capacity to perform the operations described herein. In someembodiments, the computing device 100 may have different processors,operating systems, and input devices consistent with the device. TheSamsung GALAXY smartphones, e.g., operate under the control of Androidoperating system developed by Google, Inc. GALAXY smartphones receiveinput via a touch interface.

In some embodiments, the computing device 100 is a tablet e.g. the IPADline of devices by Apple; GALAXY TAB family of devices by Samsung; orKINDLE FIRE, by Amazon.com, Inc. of Seattle, Wash. In other embodiments,the computing device 100 is an eBook reader, e.g. the KINDLE family ofdevices by Amazon.com, or NOOK family of devices by Barnes & Noble, Inc.of New York City, N.Y.

In some embodiments, the communications device 102 includes acombination of devices, e.g. a smartphone combined with a digital audioplayer or portable media player. For example, one of these embodimentsis a smartphone, e.g. the IPHONE family of smartphones manufactured byApple, Inc.; a Samsung GALAXY family of smartphones manufactured bySamsung, Inc.; or a Motorola DROID family of smartphones. In yet anotherembodiment, the communications device 102 is a laptop or desktopcomputer equipped with a web browser and a microphone and speakersystem, e.g. a telephony headset. In these embodiments, thecommunications devices 102 are web-enabled and can receive and initiatephone calls. In some embodiments, a laptop or desktop computer is alsoequipped with a webcam or other video capture device that enables videochat and video call.

In some embodiments, the status of one or more machines 102, 106 in thenetwork 104 are monitored, generally as part of network management. Inone of these embodiments, the status of a machine may include anidentification of load information (e.g., the number of processes on themachine, CPU and memory utilization), of port information (e.g., thenumber of available communication ports and the port addresses), or ofsession status (e.g., the duration and type of processes, and whether aprocess is active or idle). In another of these embodiments, thisinformation may be identified by a plurality of metrics, and theplurality of metrics can be applied at least in part towards decisionsin load distribution, network traffic management, and network failurerecovery as well as any aspects of operations of the present solutiondescribed herein. Aspects of the operating environments and componentsdescribed above will become apparent in the context of the systems andmethods disclosed herein.

B. Systems and Methods for Monitoring a Pace of Registrations ofContests for Improved Allocation of Computer Resources

As discussed above, systems and methods of the present solution aredirected to generating contests to improve computer resource allocation.A contest generating system can avoid or can delay generating newcontests and thus avoid registrant dispersion issues, and can help toensure that fewer contests with more registrants are generated, thusconserving and better allocating computer resources.

According to one aspect, a method for generating contests includesmaintaining, by a contest management system including one or moreprocessors, for each first contest of a plurality of first contestsmanaged by the contest management system, historical registration data.The historical registration data identifies, for each time of aplurality of times during which registration of the first contest wasopen, a number of registrants at the time. Each first contest hasrespective parameter values of one or more parameters used to generatethe first contest. The method further includes identifying, by thecontest management system, for a second contest that has an openregistration status, respective parameter values of one or moreparameters used to generate the second contest, and registration dataidentifying, for each time of a plurality of times that has lapsed sinceregistration for the second contest was opened, a current number ofregistrants at the time. The method further includes computing, by thecontest management system, a similarity score between the second contestand each first contest of the plurality of first contests. Thesimilarity score can be computed using i) the respective parametervalues used to generate the second contest and generate the firstcontest and ii) the registration data of the second contest and thehistorical registration data of the first contest. The method furtherincludes selecting, by the contest management system, for the secondcontest, a subset of the plurality of first contests based on thesimilarity score exceeding a threshold similarity score value. Themethod further includes generating, by the contest management system,for the second contest, a projected number of registrants based on i) acurrent number of registrants of the second contest and ii) thehistorical registration data of one or more first contests included inthe selected subset. The method further includes determining, by thecontest management system, a time at which to generate a fourth contestbased on the projected number of registrants, and generating, by thecontest management system, the fourth contest at the determined time.

Referring now to FIG. 2A, a representation of a lobby 202 includingcontests C1 through C7 is shown. Data or computer resources to allow aclient device to render or otherwise present the lobby 202 may betransmitted to the client device by the contest management system 206.The lobby 202 shows seven contests that are open for registration on afirst page or first screen, but more contests (including one or morethat are open for registration) can be maintained by the contestmanagement system 206 and may be displayable responsive to the clientdevice transmitting a request for more contests to the contestmanagement system 206.

The lobby 202 may show, for one or more of the contests C1 through C7(e.g. for each contest), a sport category, a contest name or identifier,a contest style, an entry fee, a total prize pool for the contest, atotal number of entries and a maximum registrant cap (which may be adynamic cap that increases or decreases over time, or increases ordecreases based on other factors such as current registrant data and/orprojected registrant data), and a time corresponding to a registrationdeadline (e.g. a countdown to the contest going “live,” or a time of theregistration deadline). Other information (e.g. contest relevantinformation) may be displayed in place of, or in addition to, any of theinformation shown in FIG. 2A, and any of the information shown in FIG.2A may be omitted as appropriate. As can be seen in FIG. 2A, thecontests C1 through C7 do not have many registrants relative to theirregistrant cap. The registrants are dispersed over the seven contests,even though each contest has significant capacity to include or registermore registrants such that all registrants could be accommodated with asmaller number of contest.

A block figure showing computer resource allocation 204 is also shown inFIG. 2A. In some embodiments, the computer resource allocation 204 canrepresent the total resources the system has allocated to hostingcontests. As shown in FIG. 2A, each of the contests C1-C7 utilize orconsume certain amounts of computer resources, which are indicated bythe respective blocks shown in FIG. 2A. The computer resource allocation204 corresponds to resources allocated by the contest management system206 to maintain and/or update the contests C1 through C7 (e.g.processing power, processing time, time on a cloud or otherwise remotecomputing system, or other computer resources). As can be seen in FIG.2A, a “free” or available amount of computer resources is small relativeto the resources required to maintain or update all seven contests. Assuch, if the contest management system 206 needs to create or generateadditional contests, the contest management system 206 may not havesufficient computer resources to do so until additional computerresources are made available to the contest management system orcontests utilizing existing computer resources are terminated and freeup the computer resources they were consuming.

FIG. 2B shows a lobby 202 that includes contests C1 through C4. Contestsfor the lobby 202 shown in FIG. 2B are generated by a contest rankingsystem 302 (which can be included in the contest management system 206)as described herein. As can be seen in FIG. 2B, fewer contests are openfor registration and as a result fewer computer resources are beingutilized allowing the contest management system 206 sufficient computerresources to generate new contests. In addition to utilizing fewercomputer resources, the total number of registrants in each contest, andthe number of registrants as a percentage of the registrant cap of eachcontest, is increased as compared to the example shown in FIG. 2A. Theincreased number of registrations represents improved or better computerresource utilization per registrant, enabling the contest managementsystem to scale up without needing to increase the computer resources.As there is still room in each contest C1 through C4, furtherregistrants can still be accommodated.

As can be seen in the computer resource allocation 204 shown in FIG. 2B,resources need only be allocated for four contests. Maintaining andupdating each contest may have a cost in terms of computer resources,and by lowering the total number contests to be maintained or updated,computer resources can be preserved. The computer resource allocation204 shown in FIG. 2B shows that there are more “free” computer resourcesthan in the example shown in FIG. 2A, in which seven contests C1 throughC7 were generated.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a contest rankingsystem 302. The contest ranking system 302 can be included in thecontest management system 206 depicted in FIG. 1C. The contest rankingsystem 302 can include or be executed on one or more servers, such asthe servers 106 shown in FIG. 1A. The contest ranking system 302 caninclude one or more applications, services, routines, servers, daemons,or other executable logics for generating a contest, including one ormore of a contest generator 304, a contest registration tracker 306, acontest similarity score generator 308, a registrant projector 310, apace tracker 312, and a contest display manager 313. The contest rankingsystem 302 can also include, access, maintain or manage one or more datastructures, including but not limited to a historical contest database314 (historical contest DB 314), and an active contest database 318(active contest DB 318).

The contest generator 304 can include components, subsystems, modules,scripts, applications, or one or more sets of computer-executableinstructions and can be configured to generate a contest. The contestgenerator 304 can be configured to generate a contest by generating acontest object based on one or more contest-generating parameter values.The contest-generating parameter values can include, for example, valuesfor parameters including one or more of a league (e.g. NFL, MLB, NHL,NBA, a non-US league, or another sports organization), a game type (e.g.classic (with salary constraints) or pick'em (without salaryconstraints)), a registrant cap (e.g. a fixed cap, no cap, or a dynamiccap that changes based on demand or based on an instruction to changefrom another component, subsystem, module, script, or application of thecontest ranking system 302), one or more games, a registration closetime (e.g. a particular date and time, such as the date and time of thestart of a first game of the contest), an entry fee, an eligibilityspecification requirement (e.g. a specification that only users having acertain experience level (e.g. as determined by a user profile) bepermitted to enter the contest), a prize type (e.g. a satellite (acontest having a fixed number of entries to another contest as at leastpart of a prize pool), a super-satellite (a contest having a dynamicnumber of entries to another contest as at least part of a prize pool(e.g. the dynamic number based on number of registrants), or a normalprize type (including monetary prizes as at least part of a prize pool).The contest-generating parameter values can include any otherappropriate parameter for generating a contest.

The contest generator 304 can be further configured to generate acontest at a particular timing or according to a schedule or based onupcoming games. For example, the contest generator 304 can be configuredto generate one or more contests corresponding to an upcoming game, orcorresponding to a set of games played on one or more days (e.g. on aparticular day or in a particular week). The contest generator may beconfigured to generate a contest when an active contest hits its fixedregistrant cap (has a number of registrants equal to a fixed registrantcap).

The contest generator 304 can be further configured to deviate from aschedule, or to generate a contest at a determined time, based on datareceived from another component, subsystem, module, script, orapplication of the contest ranking system 302. For example, the contestgenerator 304 can be configured to determine a time at which to generatea contest based on a pacing determined by the pace tracker 312 (e.g. apacing of one or more active contests). The contest generator 304 can beconfigured to deviate from a schedule (e.g. to delay generation of ascheduled contest, or to restrict generation of a scheduled contest)based on a pacing determined by the pace tracker 312. The contestgenerator 304 can determine a timing for generating a new contest basedon pacing information for more than one contest, and may weigh thepacing information based on features of the one or more contests (e.g.based on respective total numbers of registrants for the contests,and/or based on respective registrant caps for the contests). Forexample, as is described in more detail below with reference to the pacetracker 312, the pace tracker 312 may determine that one or more activecontests are under-saturated (e.g. are below a projected or desired pacefor the active contest, or below a projected or desired number ofregistrants). The contest generator 304 may be configured such that,based on or responsive to this determination, the contest generator 304restricts generation of a scheduled contest.

The contest generator 304 may determine a time at which to generate acontest based on a policy for generating new contest. The policy mayinclude a schedule for generating new contests including candidate timesfor generating a new contest. The policy may include one or more rulesfor determining, at one of the candidate times for generating a newcontest, via the pace tracker 312 of the contest ranking system 302,whether one or more contests is under-saturated, and responsive todetermining that the one or more contests is under-saturated,restricting generating a new contest at the one of the candidate timesfor generating a new contest. This can result in conserving computerresources by restricting the contest generator 304 from generating newcontests when a number of currently active contests is determined to besufficient to satisfy registrant needs.

The contest registrant tracker 306 can include components, subsystems,modules, scripts, applications, or one or more sets ofcomputer-executable instructions and can be configured to trackregistrants for one or more contests. For example, the contestregistrant tracker 306 may track, for each of one or more contests, howmany users are registered for the respective active contest at aplurality of times. The contest registrant tracker 306 may maintain orreference a registrant profile that includes a plurality oftime-registrant pairs for one or more contests. A registrant-time pairmay include a pair of associated data that indicates a time and acorresponding number of registrants. The contest registrant tracker 306may reference the active contest DB 318 to track registrants for activecontests. The contest registrant tracker 306 may also determineregistrant profile parameter values related to characteristics ofregistrant profiles for contests. Registrant profile data, for example,may be parametrized as registrant profile parameters (such as, forexample, a maximum number of registrants, an integral of a number ofregistrants (e.g. between a first time and a second time), a number ofregistrants at a particular time (e.g. a time based on a time at whichregistration opened or a time based on a time at which registrationcloses), or parameters of a linear, exponential, or other functionrepresenting the registrant profile).

The contest similarity score generator 308 can include components,subsystems, modules, scripts, applications, or one or more sets ofcomputer-executable instructions and can be configured to generate asimilarity score for a pair of contests, or a similarity score for afirst contest and a set of one or more second contests. The contestsimilarity score generator 308 can determine a similarity score betweena first contest and one or more second contests based on respectiveparameter values for parameters of the contests (e.g. contest-generatingparameters of the contests and/or registrant profiles of the contests).The contest similarity score generator 308 can determine a similarityscore based on determining a similarity between parameter values ofparameters of the pair of contests as described herein with respect toFIG. 5 . The contest similarity score generator 308 can determine thesimilarity score based on applying weights (e.g. pre-determined weights)to the determined similarity between parameter values. The contestsimilarity score generator 308 may determine a similarity score for eachof a set of second contests relative to a first contest. The contestsimilarity score generator 308 may generate a subset of contests of theset of second contests (for which, for example, each contest of thesubset of contests has a similarity score above a threshold, or forwhich the subset of contests includes a predetermined number of contestshaving the highest similarity score of the set of second contests). Anexample embodiment of the contest similarity score generator 308generating a similarity score for each of a set of second contestsrelative to a first contest is shown in FIG. 5 .

The registrant projector 310 can include components, subsystems,modules, scripts, applications, or one or more sets ofcomputer-executable instructions and can be configured to generate aprojection of a future number of registrants for a contest. Theregistrant projector 310 can determine one or more registrant-profileparameters for a contest. For example, the registrant projector 310 candetermine one or more registrant-profile parameters for a target contestbased on registrant-profile parameters of contests determined by thecontest similarity score generator 308 to be similar to the targetcontest. The determined registrant-profile parameters for the targetcontest can be used to project a number of registrants for the targetcontest at a point in time between opening of registration and close ofregistration for the target contest. An example of such projection bythe registrant projector 310 is shown in FIG. 6 , and is described inmore detail below. The registrant-profile parameters may includeparameters for a linear equation that is a function of time that outputsa projected number of registrants at a given time. A “projectionprofile” can be a set of such outputs across a span of time.

In other embodiments, the registrant projector 310 need not determineregistrant-profile parameters for the target contest. The registrantprojector 310 can determine a projected number of registrants for thetarget contest at a point in time relative to opening of registration orclose of registration based on a number of registrants at acorresponding point in time for one or more similar contests (e.g.determined to be similar by the contest similarity score generator 308).

The pace tracker 312 can include components, subsystems, modules,scripts, applications, or one or more sets of computer-executableinstructions and can be configured to track a pace of a contest. Thepace tracker 312 can determine a projected or desired number ofregistrants for a target contest at a particular time (e.g. a particulartime relative to opening of registration or close of registration). Theprojected or desired number of registrants can be determined based onregistrant data or a registrant profile for one or more contests similarto the target contest. The projected or desired number of registrantscan be determined based on registrant-profile parameters determined forthe target contest by the registrant projector 310.

The pace tracker 312 can determine a difference between a number ofregistrants for the target contest at a point in time (e.g. a currentnumber of registrants) and the projected or desired number ofregistrants for the point in time. In this manner, the pace tracker 312can determine if the target contest is below pace or above pace, and towhat degree the target contest is below pace or above pace. The contestgenerator 304 can use this determination to determine a timing forgenerating a new contest. For example, if the target contest is belowpace, the contest generator 304 may delay or restrict generating a newcontest as described above. One or more embodiments of methods of usingthe pace tracker 312 are described herein with reference to FIG. 7A andFIG. 7B.

The pace tracker 312 can further rank contests based on respective pacestatuses. For example, the pace tracker 312 can determine, for eachcontest of a plurality of contests, to what degree the contest isunder-saturated or below pace (e.g. by how many participants the contestis below pace, or by a percentage difference between an “on pace” numberof participants (e.g. the projected or desired number of participants)and the projected pace, either at the current time or at a future time(e.g. at close of registration)). The pace tracker 312 can determine arank for each of the plurality of contests (or for a sub-set of theplurality of contests having being under-saturated or below pace to adegree that is equal to or greater than a threshold) based on the pacestatuses. The pace tracker 312 can determine a high rank for a conteststhat is most under-saturated or below pace.

The contest display manager 313 can include components, subsystems,modules, scripts, applications, or one or more sets ofcomputer-executable instructions and can be configured to manage displayof a contest on a client device (such as a client 102). The contestdisplay manager 313 can provide data corresponding to a layout of acontest display, such as a lobby 202 as shown in FIG. 2A.

The contest display manager 313 can determine a layout of the contestdisplay that includes one or more predetermined locations for displayingcontests based on projections or rankings determined by the pace tracker312. For example, the contest display manager 313 can determine a layoutthat includes displaying, on a page or tab of the contest display, onlycontests that are below pace or that are below pace to a degree that isequal to or above a threshold, or displaying such below pace contests ina predetermined location (e.g. in a prominent position in the lobby,such as at the top or start of a list of contests), or can display suchbelow-pace contests according to one or more features, such as astylistic feature (e.g. a particular text style (which can specify asize, a font, underlining, bold, italics, or another style, and in someembodiments the particular text style is different than another styleused in the contest display), a visual indicator associated with suchbelow pace contests (e.g. a box, circle, or other visual indicator thatsurrounds or is otherwise positioned relative to the below pacecontests), or any other appropriate feature.

The contest display manager 313 can determine a layout that includesprominently displaying (e.g. on a front page or tab of the display, orhigh up in a list of contests) contests based on a display score or acontest match score. The display score or match score may be determinedby a contest recommendation system, such as the contest recommendationsystem 1002 described herein in reference to FIG. 10 . The contestrecommendation system 1002 may determine the display score or matchscore based on the projections or the rankings determined by the pacetracker 312 (e.g. may include an under-saturation score as a sub-scorefor a total contest match score). The contest display manager 313 mayuse rankings determined by the contest recommendation system 1002 todetermine the layout for the contest display. Thus, a contest that isdetermined to be below pace may be displayed more prominently than wouldotherwise be the case.

The historical contest DB 314 can include one or more data structuresthat store one or more historical contests 316. A historical contest 316can be a contest for which registration is closed. For example, thehistorical contest DB 314 can store a historical contest 316 a, 316 b,316 c, or more historical contests. The historical contest 316 a caninclude data 322, including contest-generating parameters 322 a, contextparameters 322 b, and registrant-time data 322 c. Each of the historicalcontests stored in the historical contest DB 314 can includecontest-generating parameters, context parameters, and registrant-timedata. The historical contest DB 314 is described in more detail belowwith respect to FIG. 4A.

The active contest DB 318 can include one or more data structures thatstore one or more active contests 320. An active contest 320 can be acontest for which registration is open, or a contest for whichregistration has not yet opened. For example, the active contest DB 318can store an active contest 320 a, 320 b, 320 c, or more activecontests. The active contest 320 a can include data 324, includingcontest-generating parameters 324 a, context parameters 324 b, andregistrant-time data 324 c. Each of the active contests stored in theactive contest DB 318 can include contest-generating parameters, contextparameters, and registrant-time data. The active contest DB 318 isdescribed in more detail below with respect to FIG. 4B.

Referring now to FIG. 4A, FIG. 4A shows a historical contest DB 314including a historical contest 316 a, a historical contest 316 b, and ahistorical contest 316 c. The historical contest 316 a includes data 322including contest-generating parameters 322 a, context parameters 322 b,and registrant-time data 322 c. The contest-generating parameters canbe, or can be based on, any parameters used (e.g. by the contestgenerator 304) to generate the historical contest 316 a. As describedabove, the contest-generating parameters can include, for example, oneor more of a league, a game type, a registrant cap, one or more games, aregistration close time, an entry fee, an eligibility specificationrequirement, a prize type, or any other parameters used for generating acontest.

The context parameters relate to a context for the historical contest316 a. The context can include, for example, whether sports other thanthe sport of the historical contest 316 a were in season during theregistration period of the historical contest 316 a. If other sportswere in session, the number of registrants for the historical contest316 a may have been depressed, and using a context parameter related tothis to account for such information (e.g. by the registrant projector310) would be useful. Another context parameter may indicate, forexample, a day of the week on which registration for the historicalcontest 316 a closed, or whether registration for the historical contest316 a closed on a weekend or on a weekday.

The context parameters can also relate to information related to othercontests, such as a number of contests running concurrently with, or inclose temporal proximity to (e.g. within one hour of, within 2 hours of,within 5 hours of, within one day of, within two days of, or within aweek of) the historical contest 316 a. Running concurrently with, or inclose temporal proximity to, the historical contest 316 a can refer tocontests that have an overlapping registration period, or that haveregistration periods that are separated by a small amount of time (suchas one hour, 2 hours, 5 hours, one day, two days, or one week). Forexample, such context parameters can include an average number ofconcurrent active contests during the registration period of thehistorical contest 316 a, or an average number of concurrent activecontests during a time period of interest within the registration periodof the historical contest 316 a (e.g. within the last hour ofregistration of the historical contest 316 a, or at close ofregistration). These averages may be averages of contests determined tobe similar to the historical contest 316 a by the contest similarityscore generator 308. Another context parameter may be an indicator of anumber of registrants of contests running concurrently with, or in closetemporal proximity to, the historical contest 316 a.

The historical contest 316 a further includes registrant-time data 324c. The registrant-time data 324 c can include time—number-of-registrantpairs (pairs of associated data) indicating a number of registrants at aplurality of times T1 through T_END. T1 may correspond to a time atwhich registration of the historical contest 316 a opened, and timeT_END may correspond to a time at which registration of the historicalcontest 316 a closed. The registrant-time data 324 c may also includeregistrant profile parameters for the historical contest 316 a.

Referring now to FIG. 4B, FIG. 4B shows an active contest DB 318including an active contest 320 a, an active contest 320 b, and anactive contest 320 c. The active contest 320 a includecontest-generating parameters 324 a, context parameters 324 b, andregistrant-time data 324 c. The active contest DB 318 may includecontests for which registration is currently open, or contests for whichregistration has not yet begun (and may not yet be presented in thelobby 202). The contest-generating parameters 324 a, context parameters324 b, and registrant-time data 324 c may be similar to thecontest-generating parameters 322 a, context parameters 322 b, andregistrant-time data 322 c of the historical contest 316 a, except thatthe registrant-time data 322 c of the active contest 320 a may onlyinclude time—number-of-registrant pairs up to a current time(T_Current), rather than up to T_END, as registration has not yet closedfor the active contest 320 a.

Referring now to FIG. 5 , FIG. 5 shows an example embodiment of aprocess for generating a similarity score between a first contest and asecond contest. This can be used to determine a set of first conteststhat are similar to a second (target) contest, and the registrantprojector 310 can perform analysis using the set of similar firstcontests to project a number of registrants for the second contest, asdescribed herein. The process can be performed by the contest similarityscore generator 308. In a brief overview, the contest similarity scoregenerator 308 can set a parameter index “n” to one, or some initialvalue (BLOCK 502). The contest similarity score generator 308 can selectan nth parameter for a first contest (e.g. a historical or activecontest), and an nth parameter for a second contest (e.g. a targetcontest) (BLOCK 504). The contest similarity score generator 308 cancalculate a similarity between the parameter values of the nth parameterfor the first contest and the nth parameter for the second contest(BLOCK 506). The contest similarity score generator 308 can apply aparameter weight to the calculated similarity, and can add the result toa total similarity score (BLOCK 508). The contest similarity scoregenerator 308 can determine whether the index n is equal to N (a totalnumber of parameters being considered by the contest similarity scoregenerator 308) (BLOCK 510).

If the contest similarity score generator 308 determines that the indexn is not equal to N, the process proceeds to BLOCK 512, and the contestsimilarity score generator 308 can then increment n, and the process canproceed to BLOCK 504. If the contest similarity score generator 308determines that the index n is equal to N, the process proceeds to BLOCK514, and the contest similarity score generator 308 can determinewhether the similarity score is less than (or, in other embodiments,equal to) a threshold, such as a pre-determined threshold. If thecontest similarity score generator 308 determines that the similarityscore is below the threshold, the process proceeds to BLOCK 516, and thefirst contest is added to a sub-group of contests (a sub-group of thecontests being analyzed) that are similar to the second (target)contest. The process then proceeds to BLOCK 518, and a next contest isanalyzed for similarity with respect to the second contest, or theprocess may end. If, at BLOCK 514, the contest similarity scoregenerator 308 determines that the similarity score is not below thethreshold, the process proceeds directly to BLOCK 518, or ends.

In more detail, at BLOCK 504, the contest similarity score generator 308can select an nth parameter of a first contest (e.g. a historicalcontest). The nth parameter may be any of the contest parametersdescribed herein, such as, for example, a contest-generating parameteror a context parameter. The nth parameter may be a registrant profileparameter. The contest similarity score generator 308 may further selectan nth parameter of a second contest. The nth parameter may correspondto the nth parameter of the first contest (e.g. may be the sameparameter).

At BLOCK 506, the contest similarity score generator 308 may calculate asimilarity between the value for the nth parameter of the first contestand the value for the nth parameter of the second contest. Thissimilarity may be based on a direct similarity (e.g. if the parameter isan entry fee, the similarity may correspond to a difference between therespective entry fees of the first contest and the second contest), ormay be a similarity determined in some other manner, such as byreference to a look-up table (LUT). The LUT may be accessible to thecontest similarity score generator 308, and may describe a number of“similarity points” that correspond to parameter value pairs forparticular parameters. For example, if the parameter is a day of theweek, and the first parameter value correspond to Saturday and thesecond parameter value corresponds to Sunday, the LUT may indicate thata first number of similarity points corresponds to this difference inparameter values for the day-of-the-week parameter. If the firstparameter value correspond to Wednesday and the second parameter valuecorresponds to Sunday, the LUT may indicate that a second number ofsimilarity points smaller than the first number corresponds to thisdifference in parameter values for the day-of-the-week parameter,indicating a greater similarity between a Saturday-Sunday pair thanbetween a Wednesday-Sunday pair. Parameter values may correspond toparameter value groups (e.g. to a “small entry fee” group, or to a“large entry fee” group), and similarities between corresponding groupsmay be determined rather than directly determining similarities betweenthe parameter values.

At BLOCK 508, the contest similarity score generator 308 may apply aweight corresponding to the nth parameter to the similarity (e.g. to thesimilarity points) calculated at BLOCK 506. The weight may be, forexample, a predetermined weight. The weight may be a weight determinedby a machine learning algorithm trained on a set of contests (e.g. a setof contests including annotations indicating similarity between thecontests). This can provide for weighing parameter value similaritiesaccording to the importance of the corresponding parameter, and canprovide for an improved method of generating a similarity score.

As described above, at BLOCKs 514-516, the contest similarity scoregenerator 308 may determine that a similarity score is greater than apre-determined threshold, and responsive to this determination mayassign the first contest to a sub-group, the sub-group includingcontests similar to the second contest. This sub-group of contestssimilar to the second contest can be used in subsequent analysis, asdescribed herein. Using the sub-group of similar contests, rather thananalyzing every contest for which data is stored, can provide for moreefficient and less computer-resource-intensive analysis. For example,the registrant projector 310 may perform analysis on a group of conteststo generate a projected number of registrants for the second contest. Bylimiting the analysis to only those contests that are similar to thesecond contest and omitting other contests, the registrant projector 310may use less computing resources to perform the analysis.

Referring now to FIG. 6 , FIG. 6 shows an example embodiment of aprocess for generating a projected registrant profile, and forprojecting a number of registrants for a contest. The process can beperformed by the registrant projector 310. In a brief overview, theregistrant projector 310 can set an index “n” of contests similar to atarget contest to 1 (or some other initial value) (BLOCK 602). Theregistrant projector 310 can select the nth similar contest of a groupof similar contests (e.g. a sub-group of similar contests determined bythe process depicted in FIG. 5 ) (BLOCK 604). The registrant projector310 can determine a number M registrant profile parameters for the nthsimilar contest (BLOCK 606). The registrant projector 310 can determinewhether the index n is equal to a total number of similar contest N(BLOCK 608). If the registrant projector 310 determines that the index nis not equal to a total number of similar contest N, the processproceeds to BLOCK 610, the registrant projector 310 increments the indexn, and the process proceeds to BLOCK 604. If the registrant projector310 determines that the index n is equal to the total number of similarcontest N, the process proceeds to BLOCK 612, and the registrantprojector 310 sets an index m of registrant profile parameters to 1 (orsome other initial value). The registrant projector 310 can aggregatethe respective mth registrant profile parameter values of the N similarcontests to generate an mth registrant profile parameter value for thetarget contest (BLOCK 614). The registrant projector 310 can determinewhether the index m is equal to the total number of registrant profileparameters M (BLOCK 616). If the registrant projector 310 determinesthat the index m is not equal to the total number of registrant profileparameters M, the process proceeds to BLOCK 618, the registrantprojector 310 increments m, and the process proceeds to BLOCK 614. Ifthe registrant projector 310 determines that the index m is equal to thetotal number of registrant profile parameters M, the process proceeds toBLOCK 620, and the registrant projector 310 can generate a projection ofa number of registrants for the target contest at a time T, using the Mgenerated registrant profile parameters.

In further detail, at BLOCK 604, the registrant projector 310 can selectan nth similar contest from a group of contests determined by thecontest similarity score generator 308 to be similar to the targetcontest. At BLOCK 606, registrant projector 310 can determine registrantprofile parameters for the nth similar contest. The registrant profileparameters for the nth similar contest can be generated dynamicallyduring the process depicted in FIG. 6 , or can be retrieved by theregistrant projector 310 (e.g. from a database, such as the historicalDB 314). The registrant profile parameters for the nth similar contestcan be generated as described above with reference to FIG. 3 .

At BLOCK 614, the registrant projector 310 can aggregate the respectivemth registrant profile parameter values of the N similar contests togenerate an mth registrant profile parameter value for the targetcontest. The registrant projector 310 can aggregate the respective mthregistrant profile parameters based on weights. For example, the weightscan be, or can be based on, similarity scores calculated by the contestsimilarity score generator 308 for the target contest—nth similarcontest pairs. In this way, contests that are more similar to the targetcontest than are other contests are accorded more weight in thedetermination of registrant profile parameter values for the targetcontest, which may lead to a more accurate projection. The weights canbe calculated using a machine-learning algorithm (e.g. amachine-learning algorithm that implements a similarity score as afeature). Such a machine-learning algorithm can, for example, be trainedon an annotated data set that includes complete registrant-time data fora plurality of contests as well as corresponding similarity scores. Theweights determined by the machine-learning algorithm can, when used inthe process shown in FIG. 6 , provide for determining accurateregistrant profile parameters for a target contest and for an accurateprojection of a number of registrants for the target contest at a timeT. At BLOCK 620, the registrant projector 310 can project a number ofregistrants for the target contest at a time T, using the M generatedregistrant profile parameter values for the target contest. For example,the registrant projector 310 can determine an equation describing anumber of registrants for the target contest as a function of time basedon the M generated registrant profile parameters for the target contest.This equation can be used to project the number of registrants for thetarget contest at an arbitrary time.

Referring now to FIG. 7A, FIG. 7A shows a projection profile 702 for anactive target contest. The projection profile 702 can in the depictedexample is generated at time TO (e.g. at an opening of registration forthe active target contest). The projection profile 702 shows a projectednumber of registrants for the target contest as a function of time, fora plurality of times up until a time at which registration closes. FIG.7A also shows an actual profile 704, which shows an actual number ofregistrants for the target contest, up to a time T1 (e.g. a currenttime). A differential 710 shows a difference between the projectednumber of registrants at time T1 708 and the actual number ofregistrants at time T1 (706). As can be seen, the actual number ofregistrants at time T1 is below the projected number. This may indicatethat the target contest (and may imply that other active contests) areunder-saturated. The pace tracker 312 may determine the differential 710at a time T1. The pace tracker 312 may determine the differential 710 ata time T1 based on a schedule for pace-tracking, such as checking everypredetermined amount of time (e.g. by checking every second, every twoseconds, or every three second, or any appropriate amount of time), orsuch as checking at one or more predetermined times). The pace tracker312 may determine that the differential is above a threshold, and basedon this determination, the pace tracker 312 may instruct the contestgenerator 304 to restrict or to delay generation of a new contest (e.g.by interrupting or revising a schedule for generating new contests).Alternatively, the contest generator 304 may request that the pacetracker 312 determine the differential 710 as part of a policy forgenerating a new contest, and the contest generator 304 may determine torestrict or delay generation of a new contest based on the differential710 being above a threshold. The contest generator 304 may request thatthe pace tracker 312 determine a differential for a plurality ofcontests to, for example, generate a total under-saturation score, andmay restrict or delay generation of a new contest based on the totalunder-saturation score. This can help to conserve computer resources,and may avoid opening, maintaining and updating unnecessary contests. Anexample embodiment of this process is described herein in reference toFIG. 8B.

Referring now to FIG. 7B, FIG. 7B shows a projection profile 712generated at the time T1 and an updated actual profile 704 at a time T2.The projection profile 712 can be determine by the registrant projector310 at the time T1 or based on information determined at the time T1.The projection profile 712 can represent an updated projection profilefor the active target contest. The projection profile 712 can be updatedevery predetermined amount of time (e.g. by checking every second, everytwo seconds, or every three second, or any appropriate amount of time),or by updating at one or more predetermined times. The projectionprofile 712 can be generated at the time T1 based on updated registrantprofile parameter values. The current registrant profile parametervalues may change if the contest similarity score generator 308 makesupdated determinations as to which contests are “similar” to the targetcontest (based on updated registrant-time data for the target contest),and the registrant projector 310 may thus determine updated registrantprofile parameter for the target contest based on the updated set ofsimilar contests to generate an updated projected final number ofregistrants. The registrant profile parameter values can be updatedusing Kalman filtering or linear quadratic estimation. The registrantprofile parameter values can be updated based on a weighted average ofolder registrant profile parameters (e.g. determined at the time TO) andnew registrant profile parameters (e.g. determined at the time T1). Theweighs may be based on (e.g. proportional to) a differential betweenactual registrants and projected registrants for the respective times.For example, the registrant profile parameters determined at time TO maybe weighted based on the differential 710, and the registrant profileparameters determined at time T1 may be weighted based on thedifferential 718, and a weighted average of these registrant profileparameters may be used as the updated registrant profile parameters. Inthis manner, the projections can be performed dynamically to projectwhether one or more active contests will be under-saturated at close ofregistration.

FIG. 7B also shows a differential 718 between a projected number ofregistrants 714 at time T2 and an actual number of registrants 716 attime T2. The differential 718 at time T2 is smaller than thedifferential 710 at time T1, showing that the saturation of the targetcontest is improved (e.g. as a result of the contest generator 304determining to restrict or delay generation of a new contest at timeT1). The pace tracker 312 may determine that the differential 718 isbelow a threshold, and based on this determination the contest generator304 may generate a new contest (e.g. according to a schedule or policyfor generating new contests).

In other embodiments, a desired number of final registrants (e.g. atclose of registration) is compared to a current projected final numberof registrants determined based on current registrant profile parametervalues, and the pace tracker 312 determines a differential between thedesired number of final registrants and the current projected finalnumber of registrants. If this differential is above a threshold, thecontest generator 304 may restrict or to delay generation of a newcontest (e.g. in any of the manners described above).

Referring now to FIG. 8A, FIG. 8A shows a process for generating acontest at a determined time. As described above, in a brief overview,the contest ranking system 302 can maintain historical registration datafor one or more first contests (e.g. in the historical contest DB 314)(BLOCK 802). The contest similarity score generator 308 can identify anopen or active second contest (e.g. by referencing the active contest DB318) (BLOCK 804). The contest similarity score generator 308 candetermine a similarity score between the active second contest and eachof the first contests to generate a subset of similar contests (BLOCK806). The registrant projector 310 can generate a projected number ofregistrants for the second contest at a time T (BLOCK 808). The pacetracker 312 can determine a ranking of the second contest relative toone or more third contests based on the projected number of registrants(BLOCK 810). The contest generator 304 can determine a time at which togenerate a fourth contest based on the projected number of registrants(BLOCK 812). The contest generator 304 can generate the fourth contestat the determined time (BLOCK 814).

At BLOCK 802, the contest ranking system 302 can maintain historicalregistration data for one or more first contests (e.g. in the historicalcontest DB 314). The contest ranking system 302 can store the historicalregistration data for the one or more first contests, and can update thehistorical registration data for the one or more first contests. Thiscan include storing one or more parameters for the one or more firstcontests (e.g. contest-generating parameters and context parameters),and can include storing and update time-registrant data pairs thatindicate numbers of registrants at particular times for the one or morefirst contests (e.g. times between an opening of registration for thecontest and close of registration for the one or more first contest).

At BLOCK 804, the contest similarity score generator 308 can identify anopen or active second contest. The contest similarity score generator308 can identify the open or active second contest by referencing theactive contest DB 318. The active contest DC 318 can be maintained bythe contest ranking system 302, which can include storing one or moreparameters for the second contest (e.g. contest-generating parametersand context parameters), and can include storing and updatetime-registrant data pairs that indicate numbers of registrants atparticular times for the second contest (e.g. times between an openingof registration for the second contest and close of registration for thesecond contest). The contest similarity score generator 308 canreference this information to identify the open or active secondcontest.

At BLOCK 806, the contest similarity score generator 308 can determine asimilarity score between the active second contest and each of the firstcontests to generate a subset of similar contests. The contestsimilarity score generator 308 can determine a similarity score betweenthe first contests and the second contests based on respective parametervalues for parameters of the contests (e.g. contest-generatingparameters of the contests and/or registrant profiles of the contests).The contest similarity score generator 308 can determine a similarityscore based on determining a similarity between parameter values ofparameters of the pair of contests as described herein with respect toFIG. 5 . The contest similarity score generator 308 can determine thesimilarity score based on applying weights (e.g. pre-determined weights)to the determined similarity between parameter values. The contestsimilarity score generator 308 may determine a similarity score for eachof the first contests relative to the second contest. The contestsimilarity score generator 308 may generate a subset of contests of theset of first contests (for which, for example, each contest of thesubset of contests has a similarity score above a threshold, or forwhich the subset of contests includes a predetermined number of contestshaving the highest similarity score of the set of first contests). Anexample embodiment of the contest similarity score generator 308generating a similarity score for each of a set of first contestsrelative to a second contest is shown in FIG. 5 .

At BLOCK 808, the registrant projector 310 can generate a projectednumber of registrants for the second contest at a time T. The registrantprojector 310 can determine one or more registrant-profile parametersfor the second contest. For example, the registrant projector 310 candetermine one or more registrant-profile parameters for the secondcontest based on registrant-profile parameters of contests determined bythe contest similarity score generator 308 to be similar to the secondcontest. The determined registrant-profile parameters for the secondcontest can be used to project a number of registrants for the secondcontest at a point in time between opening of registration and close ofregistration for the second contest. An example of such projection bythe registrant projector 310 is shown in FIG. 6 . The registrant-profileparameters may include parameters for a linear equation that is afunction of time that outputs a projected number of registrants at agiven time. A “projection profile” can be a set of such outputs across aspan of time.

At BLOCK 810, the pace tracker 312 can determine a ranking of the secondcontest relative to one or more third contests based on the projectednumber of registrants. The pace tracker 312 can rank the second contestand the third contests based on respective pace statuses. For example,the pace tracker 312 can determine, for the second contest and for eachcontest of the plurality of third contests, to what degree the contestis under-saturated or below pace (e.g. by how many participants thecontest is below pace, or by a percentage difference between an “onpace” number of participants (e.g. the projected or desired number ofparticipants) and the projected pace, either at the current time or at afuture time (e.g. at close of registration)). The pace tracker 312 candetermine a rank for the second contest each of the plurality of thirdcontests (or for a sub-set of the plurality of third contests havingbeing under-saturated or below pace to a degree that is equal to orgreater than a threshold) based on the pace statuses.

At BLOCK 812, the contest generator 304 can determine a time at which togenerate a fourth contest based on the projected number of registrants,and at BLOCK 814, the contest generator 304 can generate the fourthcontest at the determined time. The contest generator 304 can be furtherconfigured to generate the fourth contest at a particular timing oraccording to a schedule or based on upcoming games. For example, thecontest generator 304 can be configured to generate the fourth contestcorresponding to an upcoming game, or corresponding to a set of gamesplayed on one or more days (e.g. on a particular day or in a particularweek). The contest generator may be configured to generate the fourthcontest when an active contest hits its fixed registrant cap (has anumber of registrants equal to a fixed registrant cap). In someembodiments, the operations of BLOCK 812 may be omitted.

The contest generator 304 can be further configured to generate thefourth contest at a determined time based on data received from anothercomponent, subsystem, module, script, or application of the contestranking system 302. For example, the contest generator 304 can beconfigured to determine a time at which to generate the fourth contestbased on a pacing determined by the pace tracker 312 (e.g. a pacing ofone or more active contests). The contest generator 304 can beconfigured to deviate from a schedule (e.g. to delay generation of thefourth contest, or to set generation of the fourth contest to a time T)based on a pacing determined by the pace tracker 312. The contestgenerator 304 can determine a timing for generating the fourth contestbased on pacing information for more than one contest, and may weigh thepacing information based on features of the one or more contests (e.g.based on respective total numbers of registrants for the contests,and/or based on respective registrant caps for the contests). Forexample, as is described in more detail herein with reference to thepace tracker 312, the pace tracker 312 may determine that one or moreactive contests are under-saturated (e.g. are below a projected ordesired pace for the active contest, or below a projected or desirednumber of registrants). The contest generator 304 may be configured suchthat, based on or responsive to this determination, the contestgenerator 304 delays generation of the fourth contest (e.g. sets a timefor generating the fourth contest to be later than a time include in aschedule). In some embodiments, the operations of BLOCK 814 may beomitted.

The contest generator 304 may determine a time at which to generate thefourth contest based on a policy for generating new contest. The policymay include the schedule for generating new contests including thefourth contest, and may include candidate times for generating thefourth contest. The policy may include one or more rules fordetermining, at one of the candidate times for generating the fourthcontest, via the pace tracker 312 of the contest ranking system 302,whether one or more contests is under-saturated, and responsive todetermining that the one or more contests is under-saturated, delayinggenerating the fourth contest at the one of the candidate times forgenerating a new contest. This can provide for in conserving computerresources by restricting the contest generator 304 from generating newcontests when a number of currently active contests is determined to besufficient to satisfy registrant needs.

Referring now to FIG. 8B, FIG. 8B shows an example embodiment of aprocess for generating a contest based on a schedule. This can providefor an improved allocation of computing resources (e.g. by restrictinggeneration of new contests when active contests are projected to beunder-saturated (have a number of registrants below a predeterminedthreshold)). The process can be performed by the contest generator 304.In a brief overview, the contest generator 304 can initiate generationof a new contest based on a schedule (BLOCK 850). The contest generator304 can determine N similar active contests (BLOCK 852). The contestgenerator 304 can set a parameter index “n” to one, or some initialvalue (BLOCK 854). The contest generator 304 can determine a projectedsaturation status for an nth similar contest of the N similar contests(BLOCK 856). If the projected saturation status is “under-saturated”,the process proceeds to BLOCK 858, the contest generator 304 incrementsan under-saturation counter, and the process proceeds to BLOCK 860.Otherwise, the process proceeds directly to BLOCK 860.

The contest generator 304 determines whether the index n is equal to N.If the index n is not equal to N, the process proceeds to BLOCK 862, thecontest generator 304 increments the index n, and the process proceedsto BLOCK 856. Otherwise, the process proceeds to BLOCK 864. The contestgenerator 304 determines whether an under-saturation count is above orequal to a predetermined threshold (BLOCK 864). If the under-saturationcount is not above or equal to a predetermined threshold, the processproceeds to BLOCK 866, and the contest generator 304 restricts contestgeneration. Otherwise, the process proceeds to BLOCK 868, and thecontest generator 304 generates the new contest.

In more detail, referring to BLOCK 850, the contest generator 304 caninitiate generation of a new contest based on a schedule. The newcontest can be generated based on a set of contest-generatingparameters. The schedule can be, for example, a list of timings at whichto generate a new contest, or can be an instruction received fromanother component of the contest ranking system 302 to start a newcontest, or can be a policy for generating a new contests. The schedulecan specify the contest-generating parameters for the new contest. Thecontest generator 304 can determine that the schedule demands initiatinggeneration of a new contest, and can begin the process shown in FIG. 8B.

At BLOCK 852, the contest generator 304 can determine N similar activecontests relative to the new contest. For example, the contestsimilarity score generator 308 can determine N similar active contestsbased on the contest-generating parameters of the new contest, and canprovide an identification or count of the N similar active contests tothe contest generator 304.

At BLOCK 854, the contest generator 304 can initialize an index n (e.g.to 1, or to some other initial value). The index n can correspond to theN similar active contests determined at BLOCK 852.

At BLOCK 856, the contest generator 304 can determine can determine aprojected saturation status for an nth active contest of the N similaractive contests. The projected saturation status can be determine by theregistrant projector 310, and can be based on a determination of whethera projected number of registrants for the nth active contest at a time T(e.g. at close of registration) is equal to or above a predeterminedthreshold. The registrant projector 310 can determine that the nthactive contest of the N similar active contests is “saturated” if thenth active contest is equal to or above the predetermined threshold, andcan determine that the nth active contest of the N similar activecontests is “under-saturated” if the nth active contest is below thepredetermined threshold. In some embodiments, the saturation status is avalue (which can be positive or negative) based on a difference betweenthe number registrants for the nth active contest at the time T and thepredetermined threshold. The contest generator 304 can receive thesaturation status of the nth active contest from the registrantprojector 310.

The contest generator 304 can determine that the registration status isunder-saturated and the process can proceed to BLOCK 858, at which thecontest generator 304 can increment an under-saturation counter, and theprocess can proceed to BLOCK 860. The contest generator 304 candetermine that the registration status is saturated, and the process canproceed to BLOCK 860. In some embodiments in which the saturation statusis a value based on a difference between the number registrants for thenth active contest at the time T and the predetermined threshold, atBLOCK 856 the increment the counter based on the value (e.g. by thevalue), and the process can proceed to BLOCK 860.

At BLOCK 860, the contest generator 304 can determine whether the indexis equal to the number N of active similar contests. The contestgenerator 304 can determine that the index is not equal to the number Nof active similar contests, and the process can proceed to BLOCK 862,the contest generator 304 can increment the index n, and the process canproceed to BLOCK 856. The contest generator 304 can determine that theindex is equal to the number N of active similar contests, and theprocess can proceed to BLOCK 864.

At BLOCK 864, the contest generator 304 can determine whether anunder-saturation count of the under-saturation counter is above or equalto a predetermined threshold. The contest generator 304 can determinethat the under-saturation count of the under-saturation counter is aboveor equal to the predetermined threshold, the process can proceed toBLOCK 866, and the contest generator 304 can restrict generation of thenew contest. Restricting generation of the new contest can includedetermining not to generate the new contest and terminating the processfor generating a new contest. Restricting generation of the new contestcan include revising the schedule based on the determination to restrictgeneration of the new contest (e.g. rescheduling generation of thecontest to a new time).

At BLOCK 864, the contest generator 304 can determine that theunder-saturation count of the under-saturation counter is less than thepredetermined threshold, the process can proceed to BLOCK 868, and thecontest generator 304 can generate the new contest (e.g. based on thecontest-generating parameters of the new contest).

The process depicted in FIG. 8B can provide for improved allocation ofcomputing resources by restricting generation of contests based on adetermination that one or more active contests are projected to beunder-saturated, which may indicate that the active contests havecapacity to accept many registrants and that generation of a new contest(and corresponding use of computing resources) is not necessary.

C. Systems and Methods for Algorithmically Arranging Contests in a LobbyInterface

The following description relates to one or more systems and methods foralgorithmically arranging contests in a lobby interface. A contestmanagement system can generate, execute and maintain a plurality ofcontests, such as but not limited to, fantasy sports contests. Thecontest management system can assign rank values to the contests basedin part on contest pacing parameters of the respective contests andprofile attributes of a plurality of users who participate in thecontests. Each of the contests can be a computer-based object that isgenerated and updated by the contest management system. Each contest canbe configured with a maximum number of registrants and a registrationdeadline by which registrants can register for the contest. The contestcan also maintain a count of the number of registrants that haveregistered to participate in the contest. Each contest can be associatedwith one or more pacing parameters or the content management system canuse a contest pacing algorithm to determine one or more pacingparameters, such as registration ratios and a time remaining till theregistration deadline which can be used to determine if a particularcontest is on pace to meet a registration threshold prior to itsrespective registration deadline. For example, if a contest isunder-saturated (e.g., does not have enough registrants by theregistration deadline), the contest may be canceled or rescheduled.Furthermore, if a contest is not on pace to meet its registration goals,the contest management system can take proactive measures to promote thecontest in an effort to increase the number of registrations before theregistration deadline.

Thus, the contest management system as described here can use contestpacing information to identify contests that may be at risk of notmeeting their respective registration threshold and also identify one ormore users that have participated in similar contests in the past to thecontests at risk of not meeting their respective registration thresholdand are more likely to participate in the identified contests. Thecontest management system can identify user vectors linking the userprofiles of these respective users and provide the contests to devicesassociated with the users, for example, as recommendations, to aid therespective contests in meeting their registration thresholds.

Now referring to FIG. 9 , a contest management system 900 is shownmaintaining a plurality of user profiles 910 a-910 n. The user profiles910 can be associated with one or more users of contests generated andexecuted by the contest management system 900. The contest managementsystem 900 can be the same as or substantially similar to the contestmanagement system 206 of FIG. 1C. For example, the contest managementsystem 900 can include contest ranking system 302 of FIG. 3 . Thecontest management system 900 can identify or select one or morecontests 920 a-920 n from a plurality of contests 920 a-920 n to beprovided to a plurality of users.

Each of the contests 920 a-920 n can include contest attributes 925a-925 n. For example, the contest attributes 925 a-925 n can be the sameas or substantially similar to the contest attributes illustrated inlobby 202 of FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B. For example, the contest attributes925 a-925 n can include a sport category, a contest name or identifier,a contest style, an entry fee, a total prize pool for the contest, atotal number of entries and a maximum registrant cap (which may be adynamic cap that increases or decreases over time, or increases ordecreases based on other factors such as current registrant data and/orprojected registrant data), and a time corresponding to a registrationdeadline (e.g. a countdown to the contest going “live,” or a time of theregistration deadline).

Other information (e.g. contest relevant information) may be displayedin place of, or in addition to, any of the contest attributes shown inFIGS. 2A-2B, such as but not limited to a registration ratio, aregistrant threshold, a registrant limit, a current registrant count, aday value (e.g., day of week), a time value (e.g., time of day), aduration value an experience level (e.g., beginner, intermediate,expert), whether the contest is private versus public, and contestpacing parameters.

The contest management system 900 can identify one or more contests fromthe plurality of contests 920 a-920 n based in part on the contestattributes 925 a-925 n of the different contests 920 a-920 n and thecontest pacing parameters to display, for example, one or more contests920 a-920 n that are determined to be below pace more prominently thanwould otherwise be the case to a user.

For example, the contest management system 900 can identify one or moreof the contest attributes 925 a-925 n to initiate a search for a contest920 to be displayed to a user. In one embodiment, the contest managementsystem 900 can the total number of entries, the registration cap andregistration deadline as content attributes 925 a-925 n to initiate thesearch. The contest management system 900 can determine registrationratio values for plurality of contests 920 a-920 n using the totalnumber of entries and the registration cap. The contest managementsystem 900 can identify a set of candidate contests from the pluralityof contests 920 a-920 n having the registration ratio values greater (orless) than predetermined thresholds or within predetermined ranges. Thethresholds can correspond to a contest pacing parameter used todetermine if a contest is below pace and at risk of not meeting itsrespective registration target.

The contest management system 900 can algorithmically arrange theplurality of contests 920 a-920 n in a lobby interface (e.g., lobby 202of FIGS. 2A-2B) based on contest pacing scores and rank values, as willbe described in greater detail below with respect to FIG. 10 . Thecontest pacing scores and the rank values can be generated using thecontest attributes 925 a-925 n, such as but not limited to, the totalnumber of registrants, registration cap, and registration deadline.

Now referring to FIG. 10 , the contest management system 900 can includea contest database 940 that stores the plurality of contests 920 a-920 nand contest attributes 925 a-925 n. The contest database 940 can arrangeand organize the contest data in a variety of different ways, forexample and as depicted in FIG. 10 , the plurality of contests 920 a-920n are organized and ranked based on the contest attributes 925 a-925 n.The contest database 940 can correspond to the lobby 202 of FIGS. 2A-2Bthat is provided to a user.

The contests 920 a-920 n can include fantasy sports contests. Thecontests 920 a-920 n can be based at least in part on one or more sportsleagues (e.g. NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, a non-US league, or another sportsorganization), and/or a game type (e.g. classic (with salaryconstraints) or pick'em (without salary constraints)).

In the illustrative embodiment of FIG. 10 , the contest attributes 925a-925 n include sport 925 a, contest type 925 b, contest entry fee 925c, contest total prizes 925 d, contest registrants 925 e, a registrationdeadline 925 f, contest pacing score 925 g, and a contest rank score 925h. The number of attributes stored in the contest database 940 can vary.For example, one or more of the contest attributes described herein canbe included within the contest database 940 for each of the contests 920a-920 n.

The sport 925 a can refer to a sport category of the particular contest,such as but not limited to football, basketball, baseball, or golf. Thecontest type 925 b can refer to a type of contest, such as but notlimited to classic style or pick'em style. Entry fee 925 c can refer toa price parameter established that a user must pay to enter and/orregister for the particular contest. Total prizes 925 d can refer to thetotal amount of prize money available for a contest. The total prizemoney may include a prize for winning the respective contest or anamount of winnings to be divided based upon predetermined payout amountsfor placing within a predetermined number of eligible spots in therespective contest.

The registrants 925 e (e.g., registration ratio) can include the totalnumber of users registered for the particular one of contests 920 a-920n and a maximum registrant cap. In some embodiments, the registrants 925e can correspond to a registration ratio between the number ofregistrants currently registered for a particular contest versus thetotal number of registrants allowed to register for the particularcontest (e.g., capacity limit). The registration deadline 925 f canrefer to a deadline when the registration closes or a date as to whenthe contest management system needs to decide whether to cancel thecontest or more forward with the contest. The registration deadline 925f can include a predetermined time period which indicates a time window(e.g., 22 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours from deadline) when a decision shouldbe regarding whether to cancel a contest or more forward with a contest.For example, if the registration ratio for a contest hasn't reached aregistration threshold (e.g., registration ratio is less than theregistration threshold), the contest management may cancel therespective contest. The registration threshold may refer to a thresholdthat indicates if a contest in on pace or if a contest will beprofitable based on the number of users entered or a minimum number ofregistrants needed to hold a contest.

The contest pacing score 925 g can indicate if a particular contest hasmet its respective registration threshold, is on target to meet itsrespective registration target or is at risk of not meeting itsrespective registration target. For example, in some embodiments, ahigher contest pacing score 925 g may indicate that a particular contesthas met its respective registration threshold, a lower contest pacingscore 925 g may indicate that a particular contest is at risk of notmeeting its respective registration threshold, and a middle contestpacing score 925 g or a contest pacing score 925 g between a lower valueand a higher value may indicate that a particular contest has not metits respective registration threshold but is on target to meet theregistration threshold by the registration deadline.

As described above with respect to FIG. 3 , the contest pacing scores925 g can be computed by the pace tracker 312. The pace tracker 312 candetermine a projected or desired number of registrants for a targetcontest at a particular time (e.g. a particular time relative to openingof registration or close of registration). The projected or desirednumber of registrants can be determined based on registrant data or aregistrant profile for one or more contests similar to the targetcontest. The projected or desired number of registrants can bedetermined based on registrant-profile parameters determined for thetarget contest by the registrant projector 310.

The pace tracker 312 can determine a difference between a number ofregistrants for the target contest at a point in time (e.g. a currentnumber of registrants) and the projected or desired number ofregistrants for the point in time. In this manner, the pace tracker 312can determine if the target contest is below pace or above pace, and towhat degree the target contest is below pace or above pace. The contestgenerator 304 can use this determination to determine a timing forgenerating a new contest. For example, if the target contest is belowpace, the contest generator 304 may delay or restrict generating a newcontest as described above. One or more embodiments of methods of usingthe pace tracker 312 are described herein with reference to FIG. 7A andFIG. 7B.

The pace tracker 312 can further rank contests based on respective pacestatuses. For example, the pace tracker 312 can determine, for eachcontest of a plurality of contests, to what degree the contest isunder-saturated or below pace (e.g. by how many participants the contestis below pace, or by a percentage difference between an “on pace” numberof participants (e.g. the projected or desired number of participants)and the projected pace, either at the current time or at a future time(e.g. at close of registration)). The pace tracker 312 can determine arank for each of the plurality of contests (or for a sub-set of theplurality of contests having being under-saturated or below pace to adegree that is equal to or greater than a threshold) based on the pacestatuses. The pace tracker 312 can determine a high rank for a conteststhat is most under-saturated or below pace. The rank value 925 h can beassigned to contests 920 a-920 n based on the pace status of arespective contest, the contest criteria, and/or profile attributes or acombination of the contest pacing scores 925 g, contest criteria, and/orprofile attributes. For example, using a ranking algorithm, the contestmanagement system 900 can determine a rank value 925 h for each of theplurality of contests 920 a-920 n (or for a sub-set of the plurality ofcontests having being under-saturated or below pace to a degree that isequal to or greater than a threshold) based in part on the contestpacing scores 925 g. In one embodiment, the contest management system900 can determine a high rank value 925 h for one or more contests thatare at risk of not reaching their respective registration threshold(e.g., most under-saturated or below pace) and a low rank value 925 hfor one or more contests that have hit their respective registrationthreshold or are within a predetermined percentage of their respectiveregistration threshold.

The contest management system 900 can use the contest pacing scores 925g and rank values 925 h to display more prominently one or more ofcontests 920 a-920 n that are below pace. For example, the contestmanagement system 900 can display the contests that are below pace in apredetermined location (e.g. in a prominent position in the lobby, suchas at the top or start of a list of contests), or can display thecontest according to one or more features, such as a stylistic feature(e.g. a particular text style (which can specify a size, a font,underlining, bold, italics, or another style, and in some embodimentsthe style is different than the another style used in the lobby), avisual indicator associated with the reference to the similar contest(e.g. a box, circle, or other visual indicator that surrounds or isotherwise positioned relative to the reference), or any otherappropriate feature.

Now referring to FIG. 11 , a block diagram depicting an embodiment ofthe contest management system 900 is shown. The contest managementsystem 900 can include or be executed on one or more servers, such asthe servers 106 shown in FIG. 1A. The contest management system 900 canbe the same as or substantially similar to the content management system206 of FIG. 1C. The contest management system 900 can include one ormore user profile manager 1110, user cluster manager 1115, contest datamanager 1120, a player list manager 1125, a lobby manager 1130, and acontent selector 1135. The contest management system 900 can alsoinclude, access, maintain or manage one or more data structures,including but not limited to a vectors data structure 1150, and a userprofiles data structure 1160. The vectors data structure 1150 can storeone or more user clusters 1152 and one or more user vectors 915 a-n. Theuser profiles data structure 1160 can store one or more user profiles910 a-n corresponding to users of the fantasy sports platform. The userprofiles 910 a-n can include player lineups 1160 a-n generated for oneor more contests 920 a-n in which the user submitted a player lineup1160 and an activity profile 1170 of the user including informationrelating to usage of the application executing on a client device aswell as other information obtained by the fantasy sports platform viainteractions with the user through application, browser, or other datasources to which the fantasy sports platform has access.

The user profile manager 1110 can comprise components, subsystems,modules, scripts or one or more sets of computer-executable instructionsand can be configured to identify and store user profiles 910 a-ncreated, registered and/or used to enter one or more contests. The userprofile manager 1110 can manage completed user profiles and incompleteuser profiles (e.g., user profiles missing data). The user profilemanager 1110 can generate user profiles, such as the user profile 910 a.The user profile manager 1110 can access, from a plurality of databasesand other data sources, one or more attributes associated with one ormore players included in player lineups 1160 generated by the user andincluded in the user profile 910 a. In addition, the user profilemanager 1110 can access, from a plurality of databases and other datasources, one or more attributes associated with one or more contests 920a-n for which the user submitted one or more player lineups 1160. Theuser profile manager can also use activity information from an activityprofile 1170 that can include any information accessible to the userprofile manager 1110 that the user has provided or otherwise helped thecontest management system 900 generate or otherwise acquire.

The user profile manager 1110 can be configured to generate a uservector for each user profile 910 based on the lineups 1160, contests 920and activity profile 1170 associated with the user profile 910. The uservector can include multiple features. Each feature can include a featurevalue providing an indication of a strength of a particular featurebased on the user's profile 910. The user profile manager 1110 cangenerate one or more features for a user vector based on playerattributes of the players 1612 include in each player lineup 1160.

The contest data manager 1120 can comprise components, subsystems,modules, scripts or one or more sets of computer-executable instructionsand can be configured to store data corresponding to one or morecontests, including but not limited to, contest attributes. The contestdata manager 1120 can include a sport category, a price parameter, aprize parameter, a registrant threshold, a registrant limit, a currentregistrant count, a day value, a time value, a duration value, a contesttype, and an experience level required for a particular contest. Thecontest data 920 may include data corresponding to previous contests,active contests or future contests.

The player list manager 1125 can comprise components, subsystems,modules, scripts or one or more sets of computer-executable instructionsand can be configured to manage player lists 1165 for users of thecontest management system 900. The player list manager 1125 can beconfigured to access accounts of users and/or the user profiles 910 ofthe contest management system 900. In some embodiments, the accounts ofusers can be linked to the user profiles 910.

The player list manager 1125 is configured to maintain, for each user,one or more player lineups 1160. The player lineups 1160 can include alist of all of the players that the user has selected in one or morelineups for one or more contests. The player list manager 1125 can beconfigured to receive updates and modifications to the player lineups1160 including statistics about each player included in the playerlineups 1160. In addition, the player list manager 1125 can includeinformation about a value assigned to each player as well as a number offantasy points assigned to each player based on the player's in-gameperformance.

In some embodiments, the player list manager 1125 can be configured toestablish a web socket connection with one or more servers of one ormore fantasy sports systems and be configured to receive activityupdates of the users. In some embodiments, the contest management system900 may identify a user's account at the fantasy sports system and linkthe respective accounts of the user. As described herein, the contestmanagement system 900 can include or be part of a content managementsystem or the fantasy sports platform, and as such, may be configured toreceive and access data generated by or otherwise accessible to thecontent management system or the fantasy sports platform. In this way,lineup changes, additions, or deletions made in an account of a user ofthe fantasy sports system can be provided to the contest managementsystem 900, thereby allowing the contest management system 900, or theplayer list manager 1125, to update the player lineups 1160 a-n of userprofiles 910.

The player list manager 1125 can be configured to receive, for a user ofthe contest management system 900, from a fantasy sports system, acommunication identifying a fantasy lineup and an account of the usermaintained by the fantasy sports system. The player list manager 1125can use the account of the user maintained by the fantasy sports systemto identify the corresponding account of the user maintained by thecontest management system 900 to which the account of the user of thefantasy sports system is linked. The player list manager 1125 can thenretrieve player lineups 1160 a-n associated with the account of the usermaintained by the contest management system 900 and identify each of theplayers included in the respective player lineups 1160 a-n and maintaina count of the number of times a particular player has been selected orincluded in the player lineups 1160 a-n. In some embodiments, the playerlist manager 1125 can maintain a player list 1165 that includes each ofthe players included in the player lineups 1160 a-n.

In some embodiments, the player list manager 1125 can maintain, for eachplayer in the player list 1165, a number of lineups of the user in whichthe player is included. The player list manager 1125 can also maintain,for each player in the player list 1165, an expiration conditionaccording to which the player will be removed from the player list 1165.For instance, the player is removed from the player list when the playeris no longer included in any fantasy lineup of the user for conteststhat are ongoing or are scheduled for the future. As such, the playerlist manager 1125 can remove the player from the player list 1165 oncethe expiration condition is satisfied. In some embodiments, theexpiration condition is satisfied when all of the sporting events of aparticular fantasy contest have ended. In some embodiments, theexpiration condition is satisfied when all of the sporting events of aparticular fantasy contest have begun. In some embodiments, the playerlist manager 1125 can receive score updates from one or more contentservers and use the score updates to determine when sporting events end.In this way, the player list manager 1125 maintains a list of playersthat are relevant to a user in that the players are part of lineups 1160submitted for contests having one or more sporting events that have yetto be completed. In some embodiments, players may be removed from aplayer list after a certain amount of time (for example, 1 week, 1month, 1 year, etc.) has passed since the player was included in aplayer lineup 1160 that was entered into a contest.

Although the player list manager 1125 as described herein may receive alist of players associated with a user from the fantasy sports system,the player list manager 1125 can be configured to receive the list ofplayers from the client device of the user. In some embodiments theplayer list manager 1125 can be configured to determine the list ofplayers from the request for content received from the user. In someembodiments, the request for content can include the list of playersthat the user is interested in, which can be based on players that areincluded in one or more fantasy lineups 1160. In some embodiments, therequest for content generated by the client device or the applicationexecuting on the client device can include the list of playersresponsive to determining that a configuration setting for filteringcontent based on the players included in one or more fantasy lineups1160 of the user. In some embodiments, the request for content caninclude a flag or other indicator indicating that the status of theconfiguration setting for filtering the content. For instance, the flagcan be set to a first value if the configuration setting is enabled andthe flag can be set to a second value if the configuration setting isdisabled.

Referring again to the user profile manager 1110, the user profilemanager 1110 can be configured to generate the user vector of a userprofile based on input from the contest data manager 1120 and the playerlist manager 1125. The user profile manager 1110 can generate themultidimensional vector based on the players selected by the user in oneor more lineups 1160 as well as the contests for which the user hasregistered. The multidimensional vector can apply weights to differentfeatures or values of features based on additional information relatingto the user, for instance, a user's geographical location, a user'sdeclared interests, one or more inferred interests or preferences of theuser, among others. Furthermore, the user profile manager 1110 canimport information from other users to further enhance a user'smultidimensional vector 915. For instance, the user cluster manager 1115can identify one or more users that are similar to the user based ontheir respective multidimensional user vectors and can determineinformation common across some or many users in the cluster of usersthat the user profile manager 1110 may import into the user. Forinstance, if users in the cluster of users prefer a certain player orplayers having a certain attribute, the user profile manager 1110 mayadjust the multidimensional vector of the user to indicate that the useralso prefers the certain player or players having the certain attribute.

The lobby manager 1130 can comprise components, subsystems, modules,scripts or one or more sets of computer-executable instructions and canbe configured to manage one or more lobbies that can be provided to oneor more users. The lobby manage 1130 can include, generate, and managelobby 202 of FIGS. 2A-2B. For example, a lobby, such as but not limitedto lobby 202 of FIGS. 2A-2B, is a data structure that can include one ormore contests arranged according to a particular order and can beprovided to a device to enable a user to select a contest from thelobby. The lobby may display contests that are determined to be belowpace more prominently than other contests that are at or above pace. Thepace can be determined using pacing parameters or contest pacing scoresgenerated by the contest management system 900 or the lobby manager1130.

For example, the user can select a contest to enter the contest or tolearn more about the contests. The lobby manager 1130 can be configuredto generate a lobby including one or more contests responsive to theuser action. The lobby can include one or more active contests that arecurrently in progress, one or more future contests for whichregistration is still open, and one or more past contests for which thecontests have already ended. The contests can be displayed based in parton their respective pacing parameters. Thus, contests that are belowpace can be displayed first or otherwise before contests that are onpace or ahead of pace.

The lobby manager 1130 can be configured to generate a lobby that can betransmitted to a plurality of users or can generate a personalized lobbybased on the user vector of a given user. Additional details regardingthe lobby manager 1130 are described below.

The content selector 1135 can comprise components, subsystems, modules,scripts or one or more sets of computer-executable instructions and canbe configured to select content to transmit to devices of usersassociated with user profiles maintained by the contest managementsystem 900. The content selector 1135 can be configured to transmitcontent items responsive to the contest management system 900 or thecontent management system 206 receiving requests from applicationsexecuting on such devices of users.

The content selector 1135 can be configured to determine the type ofcontent items to transmit to the application executing on a device of auser responsive to the request received from the application as well asbased on state information associated with the application at the timethe request was transmitted. The state information associated with theapplication at the time the request was transmitted can be determined byestablishing a persistent connection, such as a web socket connectionwith the application to determine which page of the application the useris on, one or more configuration settings set on the application, amongothers. The content selector 1135 can determine, from the request or thestate information, the type of content to transmit to the client deviceon which the application is executing.

The content selector 1135 can identify, from a plurality of contentitems accessible to the contest management system 900, a subset ofcontent items to transmit to the application. In some embodiments, thecontent selector 1135 can maintain a queue of content items to transmitto the application. The content items can be selected using the uservector associated with the user. In some embodiments, the queue ofcontent items can be ordered in accordance to chronological order orreverse chronological order. For instance, the content items can beordered based on a timestamp of the content item such that the contentitem that the content management system most recently received is placedat the top of the queue of content items. The content selector 1135 canbe configured to rearrange the content items included in the queue ofcontent items as the user adjusts one or more content filteringparameters on the application. The content selector 1135 can prioritizeone or more content items over other content items included in the queueof content items. The content filtering parameters can includeparameters that affect which content is selected by the content selector1135 for transmission and/or display to the client device. The contentfiltering parameters may change as the user navigates to different pageson the application or as the user changes the type of content items theuser would like to view in the content feed.

The content selector 1135 can be configured to assign a priority scoreto each content item included in the queue. The priority score can bedetermined based on the tags associated with the content item. Thepriority score can be determined based on the tags associated with thecontent item and based on the players included in the player list of theuser maintained by the player list manager 1125. As players are removedfrom the player list manager, the priority score of content items havingplayer tags associated with such players can be decreased. Conversely,as players are added to the player list manager, the priority score ofcontent items having player tags associated with players that have beenadded can be increased. In some embodiments, the content selector 1135,or the contest management system 900, may transmit content items basedon the priority scores of the content items. Stated in another way, thecontent selector 1135, or the contest management system 900, maytransmit content items that relate to players included in the playerlist before transmitting content items that relate to players notincluded in the list.

In some embodiments, the content selector 1135 can be configured to sendall of the content identified or accepted by the contest managementsystem 900. The content selector 1135 may send the content with one ormore tags assigned by the content labeler. The content selector 1135 canbe configured to communicate with the application executing on theclient device to transmit all of the content items to the client device.

The vector data structure 1150 is a data structure that can store one ormore user clusters 1152 and one or more user vectors 915 a-n. The vectordata structure can be maintained by the contest management system 900.In some embodiments, the vector data structure 1150 can be stored on aserver of the contest management system 900 or can be accessed by thecontest management system.

In some embodiments, the contest management system 900 can be configuredto modify the user clusters 1152 or user vectors 915 a-n. In someembodiments, as new user vectors 915 are generated, the user vectors canbe assigned to one or more user clusters 1152 based on a similaritybetween the user vector and the user clusters 1152. In addition, thecontest management system can assign one or more tags to each uservector and/or user cluster based on attributes of the user vector oruser cluster. These tags can be based on a weight of a particularattribute. For instance, if a user vector includes a lot of players thatplay football but no players that play basketball, the contestmanagement system 900 can assign a football tag to the user vector.These tags can be used by various modules of the contest managementsystem 900 for selecting content, for arranging lobbies, or foridentifying similar users.

The contest management system 900 can include or execute a rankingalgorithm, to filter, rank, and organize contests and contests data forpresentation to a user, such as for display in a lobby (e.g., lobby 202of FIGS. 2A-2B). The contest management system 900, using a rankingalgorithm, can be configured to assign frequency values, importancevalues, rank values, and/or weights to contests, contest attributes, andplayer attributes. The contest management system 900 can use the rankingalgorithm to determine what contests are below pace and thus, rank themahead of contests that are on pace or ahead of pace.

Now referring to FIGS. 12A-12B, a method 1200 for algorithmicallyarranging contests in a lobby interface based on contest pacing beginsat block 1205, by identifying a plurality of contests 920 to be providedto a plurality of users and/or user profiles 910. The contests 920 canbe selected based in part on contest attributes 925 of the contests 920.A contest management system 900, such as contest management system 900of FIGS. 9-11 , can include one or more processors and be configured togenerate and/or identify contests 920 for a plurality of users.

The contest management system 900 can include a system for generating,hosting and maintaining fantasy sports contests or betting contests(e.g., contest management system 206, contest management system 900).Contests 920 as used and described herein can include fantasy sportscontests (e.g., fantasy football, fantasy baseball, etc.) and/or bettingcontests. The contest management system 900 can include a plurality ofuser profiles 910 associated with users who plan on participating in acontest 920 in the future, are currently participating in a contest 920and/or have already participated in a contest 920. For example, when auser initially enters a contest 920, the user can register and create auser profile 910 or the contest management system 900 can create a userprofile 910 for the respective user. The contest management system 900can maintain the plurality of user profiles 910 and generate and providecontent to devices associated with the plurality of user profiles 910.

Contests 920 can be identified for the plurality of user profiles 910based in part on the profile attributes of the user profiles and/orcontests attributes 925 of the respective contests 920. For example,each of the contests 920 can include contest attributes 925 that thecontest management system 900 can extract, review and use to determinewhich contests 920 should be provided the plurality of users. Thecontest attributes 925 can include one or more of the following: a sportcategory, a price parameter, a prize parameter, a registrant threshold,a registrant limit, a current registrant count, a registration ratio, aregistration deadline, a pacing value, a rank value, a contest type, andan experience level.

In some embodiments, the content management system 900 can generatecontests 920 for the user profiles 910 based in part on profileattributes of the users. For example, the profile attributes can includeone or more of the following: a history of past contests, a plurality oflineups 1160, a user type, a location, an activity profile 1170 andprice parameters. In some embodiments, the user profiles 910 can includeone or more lineups 1160 (e.g., player lineups 1160) and the lineups1160 can include player attributes, such as but not limited to one ormore of the following: a name, a sport category, a location, a teamvalue, a position value, a price parameter or one or more futurecontests specific to the respective player.

At block 1210, a registration ratio 925 e and a registration deadline925 g for each of the plurality of contests can be determined. Theregistration ratio 925 e can be a ratio between the number ofregistrants currently registered for a particular contest 920 versus thetotal number of registrants allowed to register for the particularcontest (e.g., capacity limit). The registration deadline 925 f canrefer to a deadline when the registration closes or a date as to whenthe contest management system 900 needs to decide whether to cancel thecontest 920 or more forward with the contest 920. The registrationdeadline 925 f can include a predetermined time period which indicates atime window when a decision should be regarding whether to cancel acontest 920 or more forward with a contest 920. For example, if theregistration ratio 925 e for a contest 150 hasn't reached a registrationthreshold (e.g., registration ratio is less than the registrationthreshold), the contest management system 900 may cancel the respectivecontest 920. The registration threshold may refer to a threshold thatindicates if a contest 920 will be profitable based on the number ofusers entered or a minimum number of registrants needed to hold acontest 920.

The contest management system 900 can extract contest data from acontest database (e.g., contest database 940 of FIG. 10 ) that storesthe contest attributes 925 and data associated with each of the contests920 generated, maintained and conducted by the contest management system900. For example, the registrant data can be extracted and analyzed todetermine the registration ratios 925 e for each of the contests 920 andthe registration deadlines 925 f for each of the contests 920. Theregistration ratios 925 e can be compared to respective registrationthresholds established by the contest management system 900. In someembodiments, the registration thresholds can be the same for one or moreof the contests 920 or the respective registration thresholds can bedifferent for one or more of the contests 920.

At block 1215, a contest pacing score 925 g for each of the plurality ofcontests 920 can be determined. The contest management system 900 canuse a contest pacing algorithm to determine the contest pacing scores925 g (or values) for each of the plurality of contests 920 based on theregistration ratios 925 e, registration deadlines 925 f or predeterminedcontest criteria. For example, the contest pacing algorithm can useregistration data such as current registrant count, the registrationratios 925 e, registration thresholds and registration deadlines 925 fto determine if a particular contest 920 is on target to meet itsrespective registration threshold by the respective registrationdeadline 925 f.

The contest pacing scores 925 g can indicate if a particular contest 920has met its respective registration threshold, is on target to meet itsrespective registration target or is at risk of not meeting itsrespective registration target. For example, in some embodiments, ahigher contest pacing score 925 g may indicate that a particular contest920 has met its respective registration threshold, a lower contestpacing score 925 g may indicate that a particular contest 920 is at riskof not meeting its respective registration threshold, and a middlecontest pacing score 925 g or a contest pacing score 925 g between alower score and a higher score may indicate that a particular contest920 has not met its respective registration threshold but is on targetto meet the registration threshold by the registration deadline 925 f.For example, the contest management system 900 may include a pacetracker configured to monitor the pacing of one or more contests 920(e.g. based on respective total numbers of registrants for the contests,registration ratio, registration threshold, and/or registrationdeadline). The pace tracker can be configured to generate an alert ifone or more contests 920 are at risk of not meeting their respectiveregistration threshold.

The contest management system 900 can be configured to determine a timeat which to generate a contest 920 based on a pacing determined by thepace tracker (e.g. a pacing of one or more active contests) or a time atwhich to conduct a generated contest 920 based on the pacing determinedby the pace tracker. In some embodiments, the contest management system900 can be configured to deviate from a schedule (e.g. to delaygeneration of a scheduled contest, to restrict generation of a scheduledcontest, or cancel a scheduled contest) based on a pacing determined bythe pace tracker.

The contest management system 900 can determine the timing forgenerating a new contest 920 based on features and contest pacing scores925 g of one or more other contests 920. For example, the contestmanagement system 900 can use the contest pacing algorithm to weigh thepacing information and features of the one or more contests 920 (e.g.based on respective total numbers of registrants for the contests 920,and/or based on respective registrant caps for the contests) anddetermine a timing for a different contest based on the pacinginformation of the one or more other contests 920. For example, the pacetracker may determine that one or more active contests 920 areunder-saturated (e.g. registration ratio is less than the registrationthreshold, are below a projected or desired pace for the active contest920, or below a projected or desired number of registrants). The contestmanagement system 900 can be configured such that, based on orresponsive to this determination, the contest management system 900restricts generation of a scheduled contest 920 or activation of ascheduled contest 920.

In some embodiments, the contest management system 900 can generate newcontests 920 based on the pacing of contests or contest pacing scores925 g that are currently open for registration. In this manner, thecontest management system 900 can avoid or can delay generating newcontests 920 and thus avoid the registrant dispersion issues discussedherein. Rather than maintaining a large number of contests 920 with fewregistrants, which requires a significant use of resources, the contestmanagement system 900 can help to ensure that fewer contests with moreregistrants are generated, thus improving the efficiency of theallocation of computer resources for the contest management system 900.

The contest management system 900 can use the contest pacing algorithmand a ranking algorithm in combination to select and rank one or morecontests 920. For example, in some embodiments, the contest managementsystem 900 can select, using the contest pacing algorithm, one or morecontests 920 based in part on their contest pacing scores 925 g forpresentation to users of the contest management system 900. The contestmanagement system 900, using the ranking algorithm, can rank theselected one or more contests 920 based in part on a difference betweentheir respective registration ratio 925 e and the registrationthreshold. The contest management system 900 can use the contest pacingalgorithm and the ranking algorithm to determine the layout for thecontest display, such as in a lobby (e.g., lobby 202 of FIGS. 2A-2B).Thus, a contest 920 that is determined to be below pace may be displayedmore prominently than other contests 920 that are on pace or ahead ofpace.

At block 1220, the system can determine, using a grouping algorithm, aplurality of groups of contests 920 based on the contest attributes 925of the contests 920. The contests 920 can be grouped using theirrespective contest attributes 925. For example, contests 920 can begrouped by sport. In some embodiments, the contests 920 can be groupedbased on contest pacing scores 925 g and rank values 925 h. The contestattributes 925 can include one or more of the following: a sportcategory, a price parameter, a prize parameter, a registrant threshold,a registrant limit, a current registrant count, a registration ratio, aregistration deadline, a pacing value, a rank value, a contest type, andan experience level.

The contest management system 900 can group contests 920 using one ormore of the contest attributes 925 and using a grouping algorithm thatcan group contests in tiers. The grouping algorithm can identifymultiple contest attributes 925 and then assign the different contestattributes 925 to different tiers to filter and group the contests 920.For example, the grouping algorithm can select sport category 925 a andassign sport category 925 a in the first tier. Next, the groupingalgorithm can select contest type 925 b and assign contest type 925 b inthe second tier. Then, the grouping algorithm can select registrationratio 925 e and assign registration ratio 925 e in the third tier. Usingthe sport category 925 a, contest type 925 b, and registration ratio 925e as contest attributes 925, the grouping algorithm can filter and sortthe plurality of contests 920. For example, and in this exampleembodiment, the grouping algorithm can first sort the plurality ofcontests 920 by sport category 925 a (e.g., football, basketball,baseball, soccer, etc.). Second, the grouping algorithm can sort thecontests 920 already grouped by sport category 925 a, using contest type925 b. Contest type 925 b may include, but not limited to, pick'emcontest, classic style, or tournament style. Third, the groupingalgorithm can sort the contests 920 already grouped by sport category925 a and contest type 925 b, by contest pacing scores 925 g. Forexample, the contests 920 having lower contest pacing scores 925 g orcontest pacing scores 925 g within a first range can be groupedtogether, the contests 920 having pacing within a second range can begrouped together, and the contests 920 having contest pacing scores 925g within a third range can be grouped together. In this exampleembodiment, the grouping algorithm can then generate groups of contests920 having similar or common sports category 925 a, similar or commoncontest types 925 b, and common or similar registration ratios 925 e. Asdescribed herein, the grouping algorithm that groups contests 920according to a hierarchy where different contest attributes 925 are atdifferent hierarchical levels. It should be appreciated that thegrouping algorithm can use any number of contest attributes 925 to groupthe contests 920 (e.g., one contest attribute, more than one contestattribute) and any number of tiers to group the contests 920 (e.g., onetier, more than one tier).

At block 1225, using a ranking algorithm, for each contest 920 in afirst group of the plurality of groups, a rank value 925 h can becomputed for the contest 920 based on the contest pacing score 925 g ofthe contest 920, a first contest attribute 925 of the contest 920, and asecond contest attribute 925 of the contest 920. In embodiments, thefirst contest attribute 925 can have a first weight that is greater thana second weight of the second contest attribute 925. The rankingalgorithm can use the first weight and the second weight to compute therank value 925 h. The contest management system 900 can generate and/orassign a rank value 925 h to one or more contests 920 of the pluralityof contests 920 in each group of the plurality of groups based on thecontest pacing scores 925 g, a first contest attribute 1552, and asecond contest attribute 925. The contest management system 900 can beconfigured, using the ranking algorithm, to determine rank values 925 hfor each contest 920 f the plurality of contests 920 and assign the rankvalues 925 h to each of the plurality of contests 920.

The contest management system 900 can assign rank values 925 h tocontests 920 based on the contest pacing scores 925 g or pace status ofa respective contest 920, the contest criteria, and/or profileattributes 925 of the respective contest 920 or a combination of thecontest pacing scores, contest criteria, and/or profile attributes. Forexample, using the ranking algorithm, the contest management system 900can determine a rank value 925 h for each of the plurality of contests920 (or for a sub-set of the plurality of contests having beingunder-saturated or below pace to a degree that is equal to or greaterthan a threshold) based in part on the contest pacing scores 925 g. Inone embodiment, the contest management system 900 can determine a highrank value 925 h for one or more contests 920 that are at risk of notreaching their respective registration threshold (e.g., mostunder-saturated or below pace) and a low rank value 925 h for one ormore contests 920 that have hit their respective registration thresholdor are within a predetermined percentage of their respectiveregistration threshold.

The contest management system 900 can use contest criteria to assignweight values to one or more contest attributes 925. For example, thepredetermined contest criteria (or more simply contest criteria) canrefer to a weighting algorithm applied to the contest attributes 925 todetermine which attributes 925 should be weighted higher or lower thanother contest attributes 925 included in the contest database 940. Theweight algorithm can select and assign weight values based in part onthe tier rankings applied by the grouping algorithm, based in part onthe contest attributes 925 of the groups of contests 920, and/or basedin part on profile attributes of one or more user profiles 910. Theweight values can be used to identify contests 920 that should betargeted to a particular group, cluster of user profiles 910, forexample, using the profile attributes corresponding to the particulargroup, cluster of vector or user profiles 910. In some embodiments, theregistration ratio 925 e can be assigned a highest weight value and/orthe registration deadline 925 f can be assigned a highest weight value.The weight values can vary and can be selected based in part onparameters of a group of contests 920, a particular contest 920 and/or agroup of user profiles 910 to be targeted with the respective contest920.

In some embodiments, the contest management system 900 can assign rankvalues based in part on whether one or more of the plurality of contests920 are “similar” to contests 920 that user profiles in a cluster ofusers have participated in or are registered for. The contest managementsystem 900 can extract profile attributes from the user profiles 910 toidentify “similar” contests 920 that that user profiles 910 in thecluster of users have participated in or are registered for. In someembodiments, the contest management system 900 can extract the featuresfrom the group vector to identify the “similar” contests 920. Theranking algorithm can be used to determine similar a particular contestis, relative to other similar contests. A contest 920 may also beranked, along with other similar contests 920 of the plurality ofcontests, based on their similarity to contests 920 included in a user'shistory of one or more user profiles 910 in the cluster of users.

At block 1230, the contest management system 900 can update the rankvalue of at least the first contest 920 responsive to a change in aregistration ratio 925 e of the first contest 920 of the plurality ofcontests 920. For example, the contest management system 900 can receivea new or subsequent registration for the first contest 920 that changesthe registration ratio 925 e of the first contest 920. The new orsubsequent registration can move the first contest 920 closer to itsrespective registration threshold. In some embodiments, the new orsubsequent registration can move the first contest 920 over, past orequal to its respective registration threshold. The contest managementsystem 900 can update or change the registration ratio 925 e of thefirst contest 920. The contest management system 900 can update orchange the rank value 925 h of the first contest 920.

In embodiments, the contest management system 900 can dynamicallyupdate, responsive to receiving a plurality of registrations from aplurality of users, the rank value 925 h of one or more contests 920 ofthe plurality of contests 920 responsive to a change in a registrationratio 925 e of at least one contests 920 of the plurality of contests920. The contest management system 900 can be configured to dynamicallyand continuously update the rank values 925 e of contests 920 as new thedifferent contest attributes 925 (e.g., registration ratio 925 e) of thecontests 920 change. For example, as the contest management system 900receives new requests or registrations for contests 920, theregistration ratios 925 e of the respective contests 920 can be updatedor changed.

For example, the first contest 920 can receive multiple new requests forusers or multiple users can register for the first contest 920. Thus,the registration ratio 925 e of the first contest 920 can be modified toreflect the new users registered. The new registration ratio 925 e mayput the first contest 920 over its respective registration threshold orchange its contest pacing score 925 g such that the first contest 920 isnow on pace to hit its respective registration threshold. The contestmanagement system 900 can, responsive to these changes, update the rankvalue 925 h of the first contest 920. The update of the rank value 925 hcan cause the first contest 920 to be ranked lower or ranked higher withrespect to other contests 920 or other contests 920 grouped with thefirst contest 920. In some embodiments, the updated rank value 925 h maycause the grouping algorithm to change or modify the contest group thefirst contest 920 is in and thus, the first contest 920 can be selectedfor a different contest group. The contest management system 900 can beconfigured to dynamically and continuously update the rank values 925 hof contests 920 as one or more of the contest attributes 925 of any ofthe contests 920 in the plurality of contests 920 are changed ormodified.

At block 1235, the contest management system 900 can arrange theplurality of contests 920 in a lobby interface based on the updated rankvalues 925 h of the contests 920. The rank value 925 h can correspond toa contest pacing score 925 g for the respective contest 920. Thus, thecontest management system 900 can arrange the contests 920 in a lobby(e.g., lobby 202 of FIGS. 2A-2B) such that contests 920 that are belowpace or have a lower rank value 925 h, as compared to other contests920, can be displayed more prominently than the other contests 920. Thecontest management system 900 can arrange the contests 920 having thelowest rank values in a predetermined location (e.g. in a prominentposition in the lobby, such as at the top or start of a list ofcontests). In some embodiments, the contest management system 900 canuse features, such as but not limited to, a stylistic feature (e.g. aparticular text style (which can specify a size, a font, underlining,bold, italics, or another style, and in some embodiments the style isdifferent than the another style used in the lobby), a visual indicatorassociated with the reference to the similar contest (e.g. a box,circle, or other visual indicator that surrounds or is otherwisepositioned relative to the reference), or any other appropriate featureto display the respective contests having the lower rank values moreprominently in a lobby.

At block 1240, the contest management system 900 can generaterecommendations for one or more user profiles 910 in the cluster ofusers based in part one or more contest attributes 925. For example, thecontest management system 900 can generate recommendations for one ormore user profiles 910 in the cluster of users based on contests 920being under saturated (e.g., having a registration ratio 925 e that isless than their respective registration threshold). By incorporating theunder-saturation factors into the rank values 925 h, the contestmanagement system 900 can generate, transmit or request content itemsthat recommend the under-saturated contests to one or more user profilesin the cluster of users, with the under-saturated contests being“similar” to the user profile of the respective user. The contestmanagement system 900 can generate contest recommendations for a clusterof users from the plurality of contests 920 using the contests rankvalues 925 h and a difference between their respective registrationratios 925 e and registration thresholds. The contest management system900 can provide the recommendations to the cluster of users in a lobby(e.g., group lobby, personalized lobby). The recommended contests can bearranged based on their respective rank values.

The contest management system 900 can determine a rank value for a firstcontest 920 relative to one or more second contests 920 based in part onthe contest pacing scores 925 g of the first contest 920 as compared tothe one or more second contests 920. For example, a first rank value 925h can be assigned to the first contest 920 if the first contest 920 hasa different contest pacing score 925 g than the one or more secondcontests 920 and the one or more second contest 920 can be assigned asecond rank value 925 h. In some embodiments, the first contest 920 andthe one or more second contests 920 can be assigned the same rank value925 h if they have equal contest pacing scores 925 g. The contestmanagement system 900 can determine a rank value of a second contest 920relative to one or more third contests 920 that have an openregistration status.

In some embodiments, the contest management system 900 may determine aset of candidate contests 920 (e.g. all of the plurality of contests, ora smaller set of the plurality of contests that satisfy one or morepredetermined conditions (such as having a rank value above a rankingthreshold threshold)), and the contest management system 900 can assignrank values 925 h to the set of candidate contests 920 based on anaverage pacing values of the set of candidate contests 920. The contestmanagement system 900 may rank the contests 920 of the set of candidatecontests 920 in descending order from a highest contest pacing score 925g (e.g., highest under-saturation score) to a lowest contest pacingscore 925 g (e.g., lowest under-saturation score), or may employ anyother appropriate ranking policy.

At block 1245, the contest management system 900 can provide one or morecontests 920 to one or more user or user profiles 910 associated withthe one or more users. The contests 920 can be provided to a deviceassociated with the user profile 910. The contest management system 900can provide or transmit the contests 920 to at least one deviceassociated with each of the user profiles 910. In embodiments, thecontest management system 900 can provide the contests 920 to the devicethrough an application (e.g., client application) executing on therespective device associated with the user profile 910. The device caninclude any client device and/or computing device the user uses toreceive data related to a contest and/or participate in a contest, suchas but not limited to, client devices 102 a-102 n of FIG. 1A-1B.

The contest management system 900 can use the rank values 925 h todetermine how to arrange the plurality of contests 920 to be provided tothe device associated with the cluster of users or user profiles 910,such as the layout for the contest display on a device associated with auser profile 910. The contest management system 900 can arrange theplurality of contests 920 based on rank values 925 h. For example, thecontests 920 can be arranged by rank values 925 h in descending orderfrom the highest rank value 925 h to the lowest rank value 925 h. Inother embodiments, the contests 920 can be arranged by rank values 925 hin ascending order from the lowest rank value 925 h to the highest rankvalue 925 h. In some embodiments, a contest 920 that is determined to bebelow pace may be displayed more prominently than would otherwise be thecase.

Contests 920 can be identified for a plurality of user profiles 910based in part on the profile attributes of the user profiles and/orcontests attributes 925 of the respective contests 920. For example,each of the contests 920 can include contest attributes 925 that thecontest management system 900 can extract, review and use to determinewhich contests 920 should be provided the plurality of users. In someembodiments, a cluster of users can be identified to be provided one ormore of the plurality of contests 920 by the contest management system900. Each user in the cluster can include a user profile 910 and each ofthe user profiles 910 can have similar profile attributes. For example,the cluster can group a first user profile 910 with one or more otheruser profiles 910 based in part on each of the user profiles 910 havingmultiple common profile attributes. The profile attributes can includeany profile attributes described herein, for example, but not limitedto, a location indicated in the user profiles, favorite teams indicatedin the user profiles, favorite types of contests previously participatedin.

The cluster can include a plurality of features corresponding to profileattributes, player attributes, contest attributes or a combination oftwo or more of them, associated with each user profile linked in thegroup vector. The features can be assigned a value corresponding to afrequency value that indicates the frequency that the respective featureappears in the user profiles linked by the group vector. The cluster canbe used by the contest management system 900 to identify users to targetwith future contests 920. For example, based in part on the registrationdata associated with one or more contests, the contest management systemcan identify one or more features of a cluster of users that are commonwith contest attributes 925 of the one or more contests. Thus, thecontest management system 900 can identify contests 920 the user linkedby the cluster of users will be more likely to participate in andregister for the one or more contests to aid those contests in meetingtheir respective registration thresholds.

It should be appreciated that although the specification and claimsrefer to fantasy sports, the application is not limited to fantasysports. Rather, the scope of the application may extend to othercontexts where a content management server maintains a dynamic set ofresources that can be monitored for projected utilization and actionscan be taken based on the projected utilization, including thegeneration or allocation of new resources or actions that cause trafficto be directed to one or more resources of the existing set ofresources.

1-20. (canceled)
 21. A method comprising: identifying, by one or moreprocessors coupled to memory, a plurality of contests to be provided ina lobby interface to a plurality of users, the plurality of contestshaving a plurality of contest attributes; determining, by the one ormore processors, a respective rank value for each of the plurality ofcontests, the respective rank value of each contest determined using arespective registration ratio of the contest and a respectiveregistration deadline of the contest; updating, by the one or moreprocessors, the respective rank value of at least one contest of theplurality of contests responsive to a change in the respectiveregistration ratio of the at least one contest of the plurality ofcontests; and arranging, by the one or more processors, based on therespective rank value of the at least one contest of the plurality ofcontests, the plurality of contests for display within the lobbyinterface.
 22. The method of claim 21, further comprising: identifying,by the one or more processors, the plurality of users based on one ormore previous contests commonly entered by the plurality of users; andgenerating, by the one or more processors, recommendations for theplurality of users based on the respective rank value of each of theplurality of contests.
 23. The method of claim 21, further comprisinggenerating, by the one or more processors, one or more contests forinclusion in the plurality of contests.
 24. The method of claim 21,further comprising identifying, by the one or more processors, a subsetof contests of the plurality of contests, each contest of the subset ofcontests having (i) a respective registration ratio that is less than arespective registration threshold, and (ii) a respective registrationdeadline within a predetermined time period.
 25. The method of claim 24,further comprising ranking, by the one or more processors, the subset ofcontests based on a difference between the respective registration ratioand the respective registration threshold of each contest of the subsetof contests.
 26. The method of claim 25, wherein ranking the subset ofcontests is further based on one or more respective attributes of eachcontest of the subset of contests.
 27. The method of claim 21, whereinupdating the respective rank value of the at least one contest isfurther based on a time difference between a current time and therespective registration deadline of the at least one contest.
 28. Themethod of claim 21, further comprising transmitting, by the one or moreprocessors, to a client device, instructions to display the lobbyinterface on the client device.
 29. The method of claim 21, whereinupdating the respective rank value of the at least one contest isresponsive to receiving at least one registration for a first contest ofthe plurality of contests.
 30. The method of claim 21, furthercomprising: determining, by the one or more processors, for each contestof the plurality of contests to be provided in the lobby interface, arespective allocation of computer resources to maintain the contest; andallocating, by the one or more processors, to each contest of theplurality of contests, the respective allocation of computer resources.31. A system comprising: one or more processors coupled to memory, theone or more processors configured to: identify a plurality of conteststo be provided in a lobby interface to a plurality of users, theplurality of contests having a plurality of contest attributes;determine a respective rank value for each of the plurality of contests,the respective rank value of each contest determined using a respectiveregistration ratio of the contest and a respective registration deadlineof the contest; update the respective rank value of at least one contestof the plurality of contests responsive to a change in the respectiveregistration ratio of the at least one contest of the plurality ofcontests; and arrange, based on the respective rank value of the atleast one contest of the plurality of contests, the plurality ofcontests for display within the lobby interface.
 32. The system of claim31, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:identify the plurality of users based on one or more previous contestscommonly entered by the plurality of users; and generate recommendationsfor the plurality of users based on the respective rank value of each ofthe plurality of contests.
 33. The system of claim 31, wherein the oneor more processors are further configured to generate one or morecontests for inclusion in the plurality of contests.
 34. The system ofclaim 31, wherein the one or more processors are further configured toidentify a subset of contests of the plurality of contests, each contestof the subset of contests having (i) a respective registration ratiothat is less than a respective registration threshold, and (ii) arespective registration deadline within a predetermined time period. 35.The system of claim 34, wherein the one or more processors are furtherconfigured to rank the subset of contests based on a difference betweenthe respective registration ratio and the respective registrationthreshold of each contest of the subset of contests.
 36. The system ofclaim 35, wherein the one or more processors are further configured torank the subset of contests further based on one or more respectiveattributes of each contest of the subset of contests.
 37. The system ofclaim 31, wherein the one or more processors are further configured toupdate the respective rank value of the at least one contest furtherbased on a time difference between a current time and the respectiveregistration deadline of the at least one contest.
 38. The system ofclaim 31, wherein the one or more processors are further configured totransmit, to a client device, instructions to display the lobbyinterface on the client device.
 39. The system of claim 31, wherein theone or more processors are further configured to update the respectiverank value of the at least one contest responsive to receiving at leastone registration for a first contest of the plurality of contests. 40.The system of claim 31, wherein the one or more processors are furtherconfigured to: determine, for each contest of the plurality of conteststo be provided in the lobby interface, a respective allocation ofcomputer resources to maintain the contest; and allocate, to eachcontest of the plurality of contests, the respective allocation ofcomputer resources.